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GENERAL TURNER ASHBY 

THE CENTAUR OF THE SOUTH 



A MILITARY SKETCH 



BY 
CLARENCE THOMAS 



^ 



WINCHESTER, VA. 
PRINTED BY THE EDDY PRESS CORPORATION 

1907 






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Copyright, 1907 

BY 

Clarence Thomas 

MIDDLEBURG, VA. 



PREFACE 

The writer has essayed this sketch of General 
Turner Ashby at t instance of some of his men, 
and in accordance with his own desire. If he has 
" hewed to the line, letting chips fall where they 
would," it has been done in the interest of long 
delayed justice. He makes his acknowledgments 
to Colonel R. Preston Chew, Major John W. 
Carter, Drs. West and Settle for valuable letters 
and information. To Miss Kate E. Carter for 
the picture of General Ashby on the white horse. 
To J. P. West, Abner Rector and others for 
information, facts and incidents. To Mr. H. E. 
Adams for Henderson's Last Edition or Impres- 
sion of General Jackson's Life. He is also in- 
debted to ** Destruction and Reconstruction," to 
Henderson's and Cooke's Lives of Jackson, to 
" Ashby and His Compeers " by the Rev. Mr. 
Averitt, to Mr. Jno. St. C. Brooks for valuable 
assistance, to C. G. Lee for courtesies relating to 
the half-tones, and to the Rev. J. Wm. Jones, 
D. D., for his valued introduction. 

This sketch is based first on the United States 
Official War Records of Confederate and Federal 



vi Preface 

forces, supplemented with references from the his- 
tories named and the best living testimony. If 
the writer has succeeded in doing justice to the 
first most brilliant actor of the war of 1861-5, he 
will be fully compensated for all the research this 
sketch has imposed. 

CLARENCE THOMAS. 

" Rutledge,** near Middleburg, Loudoun County, 
Virginia, June, 1907. 



CONTENTS 

Chapter I. 
UpperviUe, 1859. 

Chapter II. 
John Brown Raid. 

Chapter III. 
Beginning of the War. 

Chapter IV. 

Organization of the Seventh Virginia Cavalry — 

Romney — Richard Ashby. 

Chapter V. 

Bolivar — Chew^'s Battery — Dam No. 5 — Bath, 

Hancock, Romney. 

Chapter VI. 
Bunker Hill — Kernstown. 

Chapter VII. 

Retreat from Kernstown — Ashby's Resignation 

—McDowell. 

Chapter VIII. 

Front Royal — Buckton Station. 

vii 



viii Contents 



Chapter IX. 
Banks' Retreat — Winchester. 

Chapter X. v 

Jackson's Retreat. ^ 

Chapter XI. 
Retreat Continued. 

Chapter XII. 
Retreat Continued. 

Chapter XIII. 
Last Bivouac — ^Sir Percy Windham — Bucktails. 

Chapter XIV. 

Jackson's Eulogy — ^Ashby not a Partisan — Lee's 

Dispatch. 

Chapter XV. 
Deductions, Reflections and Extracts. 

Chapter XVI. 
Letters, Extracts, and Comments. 



INTRODUCTION 

Turner Ashby, " the Knight of the Valley." 
was unquestionably one of the most romantic 
characters of the war. 

Like Nathan Bedford Forrest, John B. Gor- 
don, Stirling Price, Wade Hampton, John H. 
Morgan, and others who, never having received 
a military education, yet rose to high rank, and 
wide reputation. Turner Ashby left the quiet pur- 
suits of civil life and became one of the most dis- 
tinguished soldiers who made our great struggle 
for constitutional freedom. 

He had been widely known in Northern Vir- 
ginia as a high-toned gentleman, a superb rider, 
and a successful contestant at the tournaments of 
his day, and had raised a volunteer cavalry com- 
pany, of which he had been made captain, which 
did important service in the John Brown raid. 

He was, as were a large majority of our Vir- 
ginia people, an ardent Union man, warmly in 
favor of doing everything possible to preserve the 
Union, and the Constitution which our fathers 
made. But when Mr. Lincoln, in violation of 
the Constitution and his oath to support it, called 
for seventy-five thousand men to coerce sovereign 
states who had simply exercised their " God- 
given right of self-government,'* and called on Vir- 
ginia to furnish her quota, brave old John Letcher, 

ix 



Introduction 



the Governor of the State, replied : " You can 
get no troops from Virginia for any such wicked 
purpose. * * * You have chosen to inaugurate 
civil war,*' the Virginia Convention, then in ses- 
sion, passed on the seventeenth day of April, 
1861, an ordinance of secession withdrawing the 
Old Dominion from the Union, and resuming the 
powers she had expressly ** reserved " when she 
originally ratified the Constitution, and joined the 
** Republic of Republics." 

It was, of course, well known that in this un- 
holy war which Abraham Lincoln and his coad- 
jutors had inaugurated, Virginia had barred her 
breast to the coming storm — that she was to be 
" the Flanders of the War " — that her soil was 
to be the first overrun — and that her sons and 
daughters were to be the greatest sufferers. And 
yet her people did not hesitate. Colonel John B. 
Baldwin, the able leader of the Union party in 
the Virginia Convention, expressed the general 
sentiment of our people when, in reply to a letter 
from a friend at the North asking ** What are the 
Union men of Virginia going to do now?'* he 
wrote: ** We have no * Union ' men in Virginia 
now, but those who were * Union men ' will 
stand to their guns, and make a fight which will 
shine out on the page of history as an example 
of what a brave people can do after exhausting 
every means of pacification." And so Robert 



Introduction xi 



Edward Lee, and Joseph E. Johnston, and Stone- 
wall Jackson, and J. E. B. Stuart, and A. P. Hill, 
and Jubal A. Early, and R. S. Ewell, and Fitz. 
Lee, and W. H. F. Lee, and thousands of others 
of our bravest and best, rallied to the defence of 
our homes and firesides. 

There could be no doubt as to where Turner 
Ashby would stand in this crisis of his State's his- 
tory. He was a lineal descendant of Captain Jack 
Ashby of the Revolution, and others of his fore- 
fathers had fought for liberty in the days of the 
Revolution. He was a Virginian of the Vir- 
ginians, and when his State was invaded he did 
not hesitate to rally his company and meet the 
enemy on the frontier. 

His name and deeds soon became household 
words in the Valley, and in Virginia, and he was 
steadily promoted until he became Brigadier- 
General, and had before him higher promotion 
and wider fame when he fell at the post of duty. 

There can be but little doubt that had he lived 
he would have been universally recognized as one 
of the very ablest of our patriotic leaders. 

I have read with deep interest this sketch of 
the career of Ashby which Mr. Thomas has given 
us, and commend it as a valuable contribution to 
our Confederate history. 

He pictures with graphic pen the life of this 
valiant knight, brings out the salient points of his 



xii Introduction 



conduct as a soldier, and shows that he was not 
merely a brilliant partisan but a man who was 
able to command armies, and every way worthy 
to be " Jackson's right arm," and his probable 
successor in command of the Valley District. He 
produces historical matter, official and personal, 
relating to Ashby, never before published. 

The sons and daughters of the Confederacy 
should never be allowed to forget the patriotic 
heroism of their fathers, and the great struggle 
they made against ** overwhelming numbers and 
resources," and among the ablest leaders of our 
Southland they should put high up on the roll 
TURNER ASHBY. This book, therefore, 
should be in every library. 

J. Wm. Jones. 

Richmond, Va. 



Chapter I. 

UPPERVILLE 1859. 

** Declare, O Muse ! in what ill-fated hour. 
Sprung the fierce strife, from what offended 
power " ? 

—Iliad. 

Four miles east of the Blue Ridge Mountains, 
in the Old Dominion, where the counties of Fau- 
quier and Loudoun mingle their rich life of grain 
and blue grass, hill and meadow, is located the 
picturesque village of Upperville. 

This section, southern Loudoun and northern 
Fauquier, form the heart of the blue grass region 
of Virginia, where the cattle graze upon a thou- 
sand hills. Large grazing lands naturally produce 
large estates and mansions with corresponding 
equipments; and the Almighty from the begin- 
ning had set the crown of grandeur and beauty 
upon the landscape. 

From the big poplar on the mountain at 
Ashby's Gap the Capitol at Washington can be 
seen with a glass, presenting in bas-relief Virginia 

1 



General Turner Ashby 



and Maryland standing guard over the flowing 
river that unites and divides them. From Mc- 
Kenister's Hill, the nearer view, the scenes are cut 
more in cameo in their picturesque loveliness. 

When a child wandering over these dear 
familiar haunts, the mountain horn made music 
to his ear as the distant echoes fell ** o'er cliff and 
scar," hill and vale. These views from the grand 
battlements of nature have their similitude only in 
the outlook which incited the challenge of the 
Evil Spirit to the Divine Man to fall down and 
worship him. 

In this enlightened civilization of rural endeavor 
the cunning hand of the money-king had neither 
part nor lot. There were none exceedingly rich 
and none extremely poor. The poor man's rights 
were jealously guarded, and his children quietly 
educated without cost to him at the schools by 
and with his more fortunate neighbor. The social 
fabric was " sui generis." Each house had its 
traditions, its servants, its social status and its 
horses. These horses were noted throughout the 
country, especially the Telegraph and Oregon. 
The prevailing colors were bay in Telegraph and 
sorrel in Oregon. Their natural gifts were culti- 



\ 



The Centaur of the South 



vated by fine training. They could go sixty miles 
a day with more ease to the rider than a cross- 
country saddler can go ten miles to-day. 

Fox hunting was an all-day sport, the rider and 
horse taking stone fence and stream close upon 
the heels of the dogs. It is not only difficult but 
impossible to explain to the Northern and Western 
man the affectionate regard which united master 
and servant. The servant had not a care, and, 
with exceptions, light work. Everything was pro- 
vided for him, and he was not only content but 
happy. The young servant united in the games 
of the day with his young master, and if the play 
became rough and the servant was hurt the master 
was called up and chastised. After night-fall was 
the happy time when the quarter rang with song, 
trombones or banjo. Just before bed-time silence 
fell upon the merry-makers, and the older servants 
would begin ghost stories. After a while the 
youngster would get excited, the goose flesh 
rising more and more, and when he could stand 
no more the " black mammy " would grab her 
charge and scurry for the back door of the big 
house, and the child would break for his mother's 
arms. The youths were first taught to ride, shoot. 



General Turner Ashby 



and speak the truth, basic principles of their future 
training. 

In the village was located a noted private school 
under the charge of an Irish gentleman ^ who pre- 
pared students for the University of Virginia and 
the Virginia Military Institute. This school bore 
a high reputation, and had scholars from every 
Southern State. 

In the country the dinner party was the social 
attraction. In the village, the dance, the handed 
tea or supper. In the country the gentlemen rode 
to the hounds or followed the setter and pointer 
after Bob White. In the town they played foot- 
ball, bandy or fives, and the boys round town 
and marbles. The girls were taught by teachers 
in their homes, and generally finished at some 
polite school of the State or adjoining State. At 
stated periods the large old carriage, holding an 
indefinite number with box seat. Uncle Harry 
handling the ribbons over a sleek pair, was brought 
into use. On these occasions the family paid 
visits to friends and relatives at some distance for 
weeks at a time. Uncle Harry, arrayed in his 
beaver and broad cloth, became the proud guar- 



1 Captain Armstrong, killed in the Confederate Army. 



.. \ 



The Centaur of the South 



dian of the mistress and her children. Every house 
that received, and a majority did, had apple jack 
or Bourbon set out on the mahogany. The glasses 
and cut loaf were there, too, with the mint. The 
social hour was held always before dinner. No 
gentlemen drank after that meal. The social glass 
was confined to the older gentlemen. 

" Then pleasure took up the glass of time 
And turned it in his glowing hands. 
Every moment lightly shaken 
Ran itself in golden sands." 

It was a rare thing to see a *' tipsy " gentleman, 
and if he could not " toe the mark " he was at 
once taken to his room. It was deemed ungallant 
to associate with ladies or be seen upon the streets 
in such a state, as it was also thought discourteous 
to smoke while riding or walking with them. A 
lady's name was never mentioned in public ex- 
cept to inquire after her health. In print her name 
was only mentioned twice, at her nuptials and at 
her demise. It is true gentlemen did not wear 
swords, but the derringer, duelling, and Colt's 
pistols were prevalent, and the gentleman was an 



General Turner Ashby 



expert shot. Personal difficulties were not re- 
dressed in courts of law. The principals and 
friends had recourse to another court. If the 
amende honorable was not made and accepted, 
seconds and pistols became arbiters. 

Among the current papers were the Washing- 
ton, Baltimore, New York, Richmond, and Alex- 
andria press. In literature, Poe, Bryant, Long- 
fellow, Scott, Byron, and Shakespeare, also 
Macaulay, and Gibbon. The Literary Messen- 
ger, Harper's Magazine, and the English period- 
icals, Blackwood's and Edinburgh Review. Lord 
Macaulay, who soon afterwards passed away, had 
left the lion's paw of his genius upon history and 
literature. To this purest English writer many a 
Southern gentleman is indebted directly or indi- 
rectly for the royal pathway of the classics. In 
the midst of this enlightened atmosphere there 
grew up harmonious and happy relations between 
all classes and conditions of the community. 

The inalienable rights of man were open and 
free as the mountain air he breathed, and all had 
a ** fair chance for the white alley." 

Black slavery becomes an idyl when contrasted 
with the white bondage of the industrial tyranny 



.. \ 



The Centaur of the South 



and monopoly of to-day. The fight is now no 
longer for the ideal and larger life, but for a 
higher scale of dollars on one side, and on the 
other the harder struggle to keep the wolf from 
the door. 



" The Painterskin " (Panther Skin) flecked its 
spots in the sunlight as it fretted and fumed along 
its banks to Green Garden. The carnival of In- 
dian Summer burning from her mountain altars 
cast a dreamy splendor over field and stream, 
church and spire. Into the village from every 
direction and all roads the crowds flocked in all 
conceivable conveyances. By noon the streets 
and houses were packed with ladies and gentle- 
men, dressed in all the bravery of a gala day. 
The young gentlemen were booted and spurred 
like the knights of old, when the tournament in 
the days of chivalry was the ** handmaiden of 
Christianity." Each knight upon his Telegraph 
or Oregon charger wore the colors of some fair 
maid, and each fair maid blushed with hope for 
the crown of beauty. The knights of Blue Ridge, 
Piedmont, Ivanhoe and many other curled darl- 



8 General Turner Ashby 

ings of fortune were there. The straight, hard 
riders at fence and ditch were there. " The glass 
of fashion and the mold of form," in woman, man 
and steed were there. Venus was also there, and, 
as the Graces unloosed her quiver, the malignant 
Elf for once was not there. The judges take the 
stand, and the herald calls the list of knights. The 
rings swung from the arms of three poles in line 
are up. To take with the lance each ring in three 
successive rides is the highest goal. The charge 
to the knights is delivered, and the herald calls 
the knights separately, as each enters the lists 
through the thirty odd names. Piedmont wins 
six, Ivanhoe seven, and Blue Ridge eight. Ap- 
parently Blue Ridge has won the prize, and ex- 
pectancy looks from each face and beats in every 
heart. The judges read over the program again, 
and order the herald to announce ** One knight 
has not yet ridden." Excitement now flutters 
fans and stirs to murmurs, then breaks into. He 
comes! He comes! The Knight of the Black 
Plume. The stranger asks, Who is he? The 
answer is too surely reflected in each knight's face, 
for their hearts have gone down into their boots. 
The Knight of the Black Plume, mounted upon 



The Centaur of the South 



a stallion as black as his own beard, sits without 
regalia motionless as a picturesque Andelusian. 
With the touch of the hand on the bridle-reins, 
rider and steed dash for the rings, taking all three 
times. Then without saddle and bridle takes all 
the rings again. Applause and cheer follow fast 
and follow faster as the magnanimous cavalier 
bows to the Knight of Blue Ridge and resigns 
the crown of love and beauty. That day ** the 
bridal of the earth and sky " first rang out the 
" Rebel Yell " over mountain, field and stream, 
the echoes of which, from Manassas to Appo- 
mattox, was the victor's paean or his comrades' 
requiem. To this feast of chivalry the malignant 
Elf flew at last, whispering murder, arson, John 
Brown, Harper's Ferry! The black-plumed 
knight bridles and saddles his horse. He is no 
longer a parlor knight, but a soldier giving orders 
for his volunteer cavalry company to meet him at 
Harper's Ferry. Then Turner Ashby rides away 
to The Craggs, his mountain home. 



Chapter II. 

JOHN BROWN'S RAID. 

Turner Ashby was born at Rose Bank, Fau- 
quier County, Virginia, the twenty-third day of 
October, 1828. He was the third of six chil- 
dren. His younger brother, Richard, was bom 
October 2, 1831. Both brothers were un- 
married. Their father. Colonel Turner Ashby, 
married Miss Dorothy Green of Rappahan- 
nock County, Virginia, the daughter of James 
and Elizabeth Green. Colonel Turner Ashby 
was an officer in the War of 1812. They were 
also descendants of Revolutionary stock. General 
Turner Ashby was educated in the private schools 
which before the war abounded throughout the 
State. His marked characteristics were, as a 
youth, generosity, modesty, daring and a passion 
for horses. He was universally acknowledged to 
be the most perfect horseman of all the fine riders 
of Northern Virginia. When in the vicissitudes 
of business Rose Bank was sold, he bought The 
Craggs at Markham, Fauquier County, Virginia, 



12 General Turner Ashby 

a few miles away from his old roof tree. At The 
Craggs he lived till the beginning of the war and 
owned it till his death. When Virginia called 
Ashby to her defence, as we ride with him, we 
will see how he kept her commandments and bore 
her court of arms ** sic semper tyrannis " amid 
shot and shell upon the red storm of battle. The 
shock of the John Brown raid into Virginia ends 
the golden era of the Southern civilization, never 
again to be reproduced by any other people. 
Ashby, gathering his men as he rode to Harper's 
Ferry, promptly arrived on the ground. His prin- 
cipal duty there was picket and outpost work. 
After the capture of Brown and his emissaries, 
the government of Virginia had them transferred 
to the jail of Charlestown, the beautiful county 
seat of Jefferson County. Later they were tried 
according to the laws of the State, condemned and 
executed upon the scaffold. As an incident of 
the trial of Cooke, Senator Voorhees defended 
him in a brilliant and eloquent appeal. The 
reader of that speech will look in vain for justifi- 
cation of his client. He dwelt upon his youth 
and inexperience, and that he had been used as 
a tool of the older plotters of insurrection, arson 



The Centaur of the South 13 

and murder. His only plea was for mercy with 
the extenuating circumstances noted. 

A great fear fell upon the people, and men 
went about with bated breath. Shotguns, flint 
lock muskets and some Hall's rifles were brought 
out and cleaned up. A patrol was formed for 
every neighborhood, and a slave for the first time 
was required to have a pass from his master, be- 
fore he could leave his home after nightfall. The 
fear was not that the North would then invade 
the South, though this was done some eighteen 
months later; but that the colored race would rise 
in a general massacre. We agree with Ashby 
that this was the beginning of the war; but it is 
well known that he was opposed to secession as 
long as it could honorably be avoided. Ashby, 
after the executions at Charlestown, returned 
with his volunteer cavalry company to his home. 

Harper's Magazine had a very large circulation 
in Northern Virginia at this time, and by far the 
finest picture of Ashby extant was found in its 
pages. It was taken upon the famous white horse. 
Harper's Magazine, however, was dropped like 
a coal of fire. At Harper's Ferry for the first 
time Ashby met Lee, Jackson, and Stuart. These 



14 General Turner Ashby 

four representative men of the South drew capital 
prizes in the lottery of fate when times tried men's 
souls. Three of these in the prowess of their 
genius went down at the banquet of death where 
" the grape was lead and the wine was blood." 
The fourth lived to the close and after the war, 
to challenge the admiration of mankind, as the 
greatest soldier and the most perfect citizen, and, 
like Socrates, died obedient unto law. The ex- 
perience gained at Harper's Ferry stood Ashby 
well in hand when, eighteen months later, he ar- 
rived there at the first call to arms. He was do- 
ing duty and tenting on the camp ground. In 
1 860 Ashby 's company, in recognition of his ser- 
vices at Harper's Ferry and their regard for him, 
presented him with a silver service. An uncle 
of the writer, then a member of his company, was 
selected to present it. He offered the service, in 
a few remarks testifying their esteem. Ashby, in 
trying to return thanks, broke down and could 
only bow his acknowledgments. And thus waited 
this modest country gentleman in his hospitable 
home to become one of Virginia's noblest sacri- 
fices. This section of Virginia produced two of 
the most heroic figures of those heroic times. The 



The Centaur of the South 15 

subject of this sketch lived not far from Upper- 
ville, the home of General Lewis A. Armistead, 
the foremost figure in Pickett's great charge at 
Gettysburg. These gentlemen were warm friends, 
and in their association in 1859-60 hoped for the 
best, but were fearful of the coming storm. Armi- 
stead fell inside the works at Gettysburg, the 
farthest point reached by any troops. While 
dying he said to a Federal officer, ** You can't 
whip men who can live and fight on this, parched 
corn." 



Chapter III. 

BEGINNING OF THE WAR. 

To discuss secession in this sketch would be 
both trite and academic. A few lines will suffice 
I to show where Virginia stood on this momentous 
question. On the fourteenth day of April, 1 86 1 , 
the President of the United States issued his call 
I for seventy-five thousand troops with which to 
j coerce the seceding Southern States. Virginia 
I was included in this call for her quota. Up to 
I this time the Constitutional Convention, assembled 
I at Richmond, refused to secede by a large ma- 
jority. Three days after the call for troops, Vir- 
ginia left the Union by an almost unanimous vote. 
I Colonel R. E. Lee was chosen at once by the con- 
vention as the commander-in-chief of all the Vir- 
ginia forces, with the rank of major-general. Why 
did the State of Virginia delay so long in her 
action? Because she loved peace, and wished 
to exhaust every means in her power, through 
her commissioners repeatedly sent to Washing- 
ton to avoid war. Then why did she in three 
days make her decision? Under the call for 

17 



18 General Turner Ashby 

troops she either had to make war on her sister 
Southern States or do battle for and with them. 
She did not hesitate to accept the gage, though 
she v/ell knew her bosom would bear the wounds 
and scars, the hoof-beats and ruin of the greatest 
revolution of modern history. The cause of war 
was in principle States' Rights. The States' 
Rights of those times is the home rule of these 
times. The States' Rights or home rule of these 
times has almost belted the globe. Yet in the 
United States, its birth place, it has become a 
rare exotic. Beware, lest centralization, in sap- 
ping liberty, engender not a greater revolution than 
secession. Lord Macaulay, in writing about this 
country, said the time might come when our 
" civilization would destroy liberty or our liberty 
destroy civilization." We say, in leaving this 
subject, let those without sin against the Consti- 
tution cast the first stone at the South. As soon 
as the wire flashed the news that Virginia had 
been forced from the Union to which she had 
given so much and done so much to create, Ashby 
called his men together and proceeded at once to 
the border at Harper's Ferry. He arrived in time 
to see the arsenal go up in smoke by the order of 



The Centaur of the South 19 

the United States Government. After consulta- 
tion with General Harper, commanding the militia 
at Harper's Ferry, Ashby with his company, some 
infantry and artillery, proceeded lower down the 
Potomac River to the Point of Rocks to guard 
that bridge. He held this point also as a con- 
necting link between Harper's Ferry and Lees- 
burg, where Colonel Eppa Hunton was organiz- 
ing the Eighth Virginia Regiment of Volunteers 
and commanding at that point. As the Eighth 
Virginia Regiment was recruited from the same 
\ class of men and same section of Virginia as those 
I who followed Ashby, who was reporting to 
Colonel Hunton on the one side at this time, the 
writer deems it appropriate to make a short refer- 
ence to it. From first Manassas to Appomattox 
it bore a gallant part in all the battles under 
General J. E. Johnston and General Lee in Vir- 
ginia. After the battle of Ball's Bluff, near Lees- 
burg, Virginia, it was called the "Bloody Eighth" 
for its stubborn resistance against heavy odds, and 
routing the enemy after sundown with the bay- 
onet. In the seven days' battles around Rich- 
mond it proved its metal again, and at Gaines' 
Mill, and as a part of Pickett's Division, helped to 



20 General Turner Ashby 

storm and capture Porter's gun behind three lines 
of breastworks and heavily supported by infantry 
and artillery. 

At Gettysburg/ under the bold and dashing 
Pickett, it lost one hundred and ninety men out 
of two hundred that started with the charging 
column. After Gettysburg, Colonel Hunton was 
promoted to command the old brigade with the 
rank of brigadier-general. From this time to the 
close of the war the Eighth Virginia was also 
known as the Berkeley Regiment. The four 
Berkeley brothers at the same time were the field 
officers and a captain. Colonel Norborne Berke- 
ley, Lieutenant-Colonel Edmund Berkeley, Major 
William N. Berkeley and Captain Charles F. 
Berkeley. It is a remarkable fact that all these 
brothers were wounded and captured, but lived 
through the war. We would like to dwell upon 
many other brave officers and men of this regi- 
ment, but it would be irrelevant. Its officers and 
men will challenge comparison with any others 
in the great army of Northern Virginia. The 



1 General Eppa Hunton, Colonels Berkeley, Adjutant T. B. Hutchi- 
son, Captains A. E. Mathews and John Gray, Lieutenant Ben. 
Hutchison and brother, and Captain J. R. Hutchison. 




GENERAL R. E. LEE 



The Centaur of the South 21 

Leesburg company of infantry belonged to the 
Seventeenth Virginia Regiment, and that splendid 
command had no more distinguished company 
than the one from Leesburg. At the Point of 
Rocks many brave sons of Maryland joined 
Ashby and were incorporated into Company G, 
in the formation of the Seventh Virginia Cavalry, 
first commanded by Colonel Angus McDonald, 
then Ashby. Colonel McDonald was over the 
age limit at the beginning of the war, but his 
ardor and courage brooked no obstacle. Later, 
owing to physical infirmities, he was transferred 
to another branch of the service. 

The following extracts from Lieutenant-Colonel 
Deas, A. G., of May 21st and 23rd, 1861 , show 
how Ashby, from the start, commanded impor- 
tant posts with infantry, artillery, and cavalry. 

** On Sunday, the nineteenth instant, in the 
evening, I visited the position opposite the Point 
of Rocks, distant twelve miles from this point 
(Harper's Ferry), where Captain Ashby of the 
Virginia Cavalry, an excellent officer, is stationed, 
with two companies of cavalry, six pieces of light 



22 General Turner Ashby 

artillery and a company of rifle men, together with 
some men of Maryland only a part of whom are 
armed. His cavalry is employed in active recon- 
noisance of the surrounding country, and his artil- 
lery has complete command of the bridge cross- 
ing the Potomac, the piers of which are mined 
and can be instantly destroyed in case of necessity ; 
in addition to which he holds possession of the 
road at the Point of Rocks in such a manner as 
to prevent the passage of a train." 

As showing the importance of the position 
selected by Captain Ashby, without commission, 
Lieut.-Col. Deas reports again to the War De- 
partment : 

" There are six guns with Captain Imboden's 
company at Point of Rocks. At this place Cap- 
tain Ashby is stationed with two companies of 
cavalry and two hundred infantry, his total force 
amounting to four hundred men, one hundred and 
thirty-three horses and six guns. His cavalry 
covers the country for twenty miles to his rear. 
* * * I am quite confident v/ith the vigilance 



The Centaur of the South 23 

which is exercised by Captain Ashby no enemy 
can pass the point which he is directed to ob- 
serve. 

A little later General Joseph E. Johnston, com- 
manding at Harper's Ferry, reports on Captain 
/Ashby to the War Department: ** Captain Ash- 
by, commanding near Point of Rocks, was in- 
structed by my predecessor to break the railroad 
whenever he found such a means necessary for his 
defense. These instructions were repeated by 
, me. Captain Ashby reported this morning, that 
j in consequence of intelligence just received, he 
] is about to throw a mass of rock upon it by blast- 
\ mg. 

I Again, General Lee writing to General John- 
ston on May 30, 1 861 , endorses the military judg- 
ment as displayed by Ashby in holding the Point 
of Rocks as an outpost and connecting link be- 
tween Leesburg and Harper's Ferry. 

** Colonel Eppa Hunton, commanding at Lees- 
burg, has been ordered to have an outpost at 
Drainsville. * * * He is to inform you of any 



iQ. R. Series i, Vol. 2, page 861. Ibid 868. 
20. R. Series i, Vol. 2, page 881. 



24 General Turner Ashby 

movement of the United States troops in the direc- 
tion of Leesburg tending to threaten your rear 
through Captain Ashby of the Cavalry at the 
Point of Rocks.'* ^ 

Ashby had not received a military education, 
but his soldierly nature had seized upon this as 
the vital point on the border. The judgment of 
Ashby was further endorsed, as we have seen, by 
reinforcements being added to his original com- 
mand at the Point of Rocks. At this time Gen- 
eral Joseph E. Johnston ordered Ashby to report 
to Colonel J. E. B. Stuart under Johnston at 
Harper's Ferry. At the same time Ashby had 
already been ordered by Colonel McDonald to 
report to his own regiment, the 7th Virginia. 
Ashby calls the attention of General Johnston in 
refusing to obey his orders to two facts: First, 
that Colonel McDonald had already ordered him 
to report to his own regiment. Secondly, that the 
Governor of Virginia had expressly provided that 
the troops of the State when mustered in to the 
service of the Confederate States should preserve 
their ** regimental organization." The following 



^O. R. Series i, Vol. 2, page 894. 



The Centaur of the South 25 

personal and official letters will show how Ashby 
won his first fight with his friends: 

" Harper's Ferry, 
"June 16. 1861. 
" Captain : 

** Your party has just reported to me. Let 
me offer you my cordial thanks for your services, 
especially the last. I assure you that the knowl- 
edge that you were between me and the enemy 
made me sleep soundly last night, and that your 
presence among the troops under my command 
would always have such an effect. Whenever 
I may be serving under circumstances agreeable 
to you, be assured that it would be a matter of 
professional and personal gratification to me to 
be associated with you. * * * 

** With the hope of meeting you often here- 
after, I remain, 

** Respectfully and truly, 

" J. E. Johnston." ^ 

Could a note from a commander to an almost 
unknown subordinate be more complimentary and 



1 Averitt — Appendix 395-6. 



26 General Turner Ashby 



gracious? So much for the personal note, and 
next we will read the official order. 

" Headquarters Army of the Potomac, 
"Colonel: " July 23. 1861. 

" You have been appointed Lieutenant-Colonel 
in the Virginia Cavalry, with orders to report to 
General Johnston. The General directs me to say 
that he will leave it optional with yourself either 
to remain with Colonel McDonald or to report 
to him. ** Respectfully your obedient servant, 
" Thos. G. Rhett, 

" A. A, General." ^ 

The General had early discovered the soldier 
in Ashby. He had also discovered that when 
Ashby took a decided stand his action was based 
on right, and no power could move him. The 
writer has pleasure in acknowledging that General 
Johnston at once not only saw his mistake, but 
had the manhood and grace to both highly com- 
pliment and promote the subject of it from a cap- 
tain, without commission, to a lieutenant-colonel, 
with commission. 



^ Averitt — Appendix 399. 



Chapter IV. 

ORGANIZATION OF THE SEVENTH 

VIRGINIA CAVALRY— ROMNEY 

— CAPT. RICHARD ASHBY. 

With the view of giving the organization of the 
Seventh Virginia Cavalry, the following extract 
is quoted from Colonel McDonald*s report to the 
War Department: 

** Headquarters, Romney, Va., 

** June 25, 1861. 
" Hon. L. P. Walker, 

** Secretary of War, Richmond, Va. 
"Sir: 

" On the fifth instant I had the honor to re- 
ceive at the hands of the President the commis- 
sion of Colonel of Cavalry in the Army of the 
Confederate States. 

** On the fifteenth instant Captain Turner Ash- 
by, commanding a troop belonging to Colonel 
Hunton's Regiment, reported he had obtained 
from General Johnston permission to rejoin his 
own regiment, * * ^' therefore his troop joined 
me at Winchester. * * * I am obliged, there- 
27 



28 General Turner Ashby 

fore, to ask in advance of the full organization of 
my regiment * * * that Captain Turner Ashby 
be commissioned as Lieutenant-Colonel, and Dr. 
O. R. Funston as Major of my Regiment * * * 
As to Captain Ashby, I need not speak of his 
qualities, for already he is known as one of the 
best partisan leaders in the service ; himself a thor- 
ough soldier, he is eminently qualified to com- 
mand. I sincerely trust that the commission asked 
for may issue to him. * * * In order that the 
demoralizing influences of campaign life, particu- 
larly that w^hich attaches to border war, may be 
counteracted as far as possible, the Rev. James B. 
Averitt, of the Episcopal Church, has been in- 
duced by me to accompany the com.mand as act- 
ing Chaplain of the regiment. 

** I ask therefore this gentleman may be ap- 
pointed Chaplain of my command, and that his 
commission may issue for same. 

" I have the honor to be most respectfully your 
obedient servant, 

" Angus W. McDonald, 
" Col. Cav. C. S. Army." ^ 

^ O. R. Series i, Vol. 2, pages 952, 954. 



The Centaur of the South 29 

Colonel McDonald, acting under the directions 
of the War Department, established his head- 
quarters at Romney, with the view of executing 
such orders as burning bridges, especially the large 
bridge on Cheat River. It was expected in this 
way to obstruct the movements of General Mc- 
Clellan's operations. Lieut.-Col. Ashby occu- 
pied a position six miles below Romney on the 
river upon the estate of Colonel George Washing- 
ton. His pickets were thrown across the river 
and scouted to Cumberland, which was held by 
the Federal troops. Some Union men infested 
the country and their arrest was deemed the best 
way to prevent information from being carried to 
the enemy. Captain Richard Ashby, brother of 
the Colonel, was ordered to arrest one of these 
men who, it was reported, had been especially 
obnoxious to the people. Captain Richard Ash- 
by formed a small squad of troops and started 
immediately to execute his orders. Arriving at the 
place, where he expected to j&nd his man he found 
he had escaped. He pushed on and came out on 
the track of the B. & O. Railroad. Advancing 
along the railroad he soon discovered the enemy 
were trying to ambush him from the mountain 



30 General Turner Ashby 



gorges nearby. Seeing he was largely outnum- 
bered, he turned back on the railroad. Wheel- 
ing and fighting as he and his men retreated, he 
ordered them to take care of themselves. As his 
horse attempted to clear a cattle guard, it slipped 
and fell. Recovering himself from horse and 
guard, there ensued one of the most desperate 
hand-to-hand fights of the war. One against 
many, when he was found he was covered with 
wounds and left for dead. Lieut.-Col. Ashby, 
scouting, had heard firing, or was informed of 
the fighting, and pressed hard on the heels of the 
enemy. Coming opposite Kelly's Island in the 
Potomac, he struck the enemy there, and the com- 
mand rang out, ** Charge them, men, charge!'* 
The bulge soon won the fight, for Turner Ashby 
rode that day with smoking pistols and a bloody 
spur. The accounts at that time say he and his 
scouting party killed as many of the enemy as he 
had in his own party. Ashby also suffered loss. 
Dr. O. Fountain, of Baltimore, and young Foley, 
of Loudoun County, were killed, both gallant sol- 
diers. Lieut.-Col. Ashby, fearing the worst, rode 
back and found his brother alive, but almost ex- 
hausted from his wounds. He and his comrades 



The Centaur of the South 3! 

improvised a litter and carried him to the hos- 
pitable mansion of Col. George Washington, 
Ridgedale, nearby. Captain Ashby lingered for 
about a week, when his chivalrous soul yielded to 
death. These brothers were bound together with 
** hooks of steel," and Turner Ashby became a 
changed man, devoted to the memory of his 
brother and to a cause to be lost. The one 
seemed to forecast the other. His personality, 
always gentle and reserved, held now the mystery 
of sorrow, and the admiration of his comrades 
turned to devotion. 

About the seventeenth day of July, Colonel 
McDonald received orders to report to Winches- 
ter with the Seventh Regiment. Lieut.-Col. 
Ashby arrived on the nineteenth, and found Gen- 
eral J. E. Johnston's army en route for Manassas. 
Ashby made a daring raid on the twentieth day 
of July in the direction of General Patterson's 
line, and, in places, penetrated it. He found the 
Federal general in complete ignorance of General 
Johnston's fast backward reinforcement of General 
Beauregard at Manassas, and he so reported. 
This information, discovered and reported by 
Ashby, permitted Johnston to withdraw ail the 



32 General Turner Ashby 

remaining force he had left at Winchester in 
front of Patterson. 

The ^vriter has a vivid recollection, as a small 
boy, of some of the infantry passing through Up- 
perville en route by the Piedmont turnpike, in 
making this move to the Manassas branch rail- 
road. The shorter route, after passing Ashby's 
Gap, by way of Paris, to Piedmont Station, now^ 
Delaplaine, vv^as so overcrowded by the advance 
of Johnston's army that the Upperville route had 
to be used also. Old men, ladies, girls, children, 
and servants, all had their places along the march- 
ing columns, with sandwiches, buttermilk, water, 
and everything needed by hungry and tired sol- 
diers. No stop was made ; the men ate and drank 
as they marched, and the boys would run along 
by the troops and bring back the glasses and cups. 
Oh, the swing of the step, the laugh and jest of 
those dirty darlings in gray ! Every fellow seemed 
afraid he would miss the first great battle of the 
war. This spirit meant business and defeat for 
General McDowell. It meant business and death, 
too, for many of those glorious fellows. Ashby, 
finding he had masked Johnston's movement com- 
pletely from Patterson, moved on Sunday, the 



The Centaur of the South 33 

twenty-first day of July, 1861, about midway 
between Winchester and Manassas, and late in 
the afternoon of that day passed through Upper- 
ville and camped that night about old Clifton 
Mills, a short distance east of the tow^n. This 
was the last time the writer ever saw him. He 
had frequently been a guest at the writer's home, 
and, though reserved, he was attractive to every- 
body, and especially to children. Maturer years 
and reflection teach many things. The boy did 
not know that the angle of reflection was equal 
to the angle of incident. Physics teaches the 
great natural laws. On this principle we now 
realize that we are part of all we see, hear, learn, 
and with which we come in contact. Those who 
hold this receptive power have become the world's 
greatest soldiers, orators, and statesmen. It makes 
leaders of men. Two notable examples, who 
lived long enough to illustrate this natural law, 
are said to be Lee and Napoleon. There is no 
other way to account for Ashby's genius for war 
and leadership. He was without military train- 
ing, and had not shown any special aptitude or 
distinction in civil life. The angle of reflection 
was ever equal to the angle of incident — the 



34 General Turner Ashby 

danger, the emergency of the hour he met equaled 
or conquered. He was stirred at the sound of 
Beauregard's guns, which he could hear after 
crossing the Blue Ridge, but his duty, for once, 
was to serve by waiting. The next morning the 
Seventh marched to Haymarket, on the twenty- 
third of July to Bristow Station, and the next 
day towards Staunton. On this march to the 
Valley of Virginia, though he passed near his own 
home, he did not visit it, but allowed his men, 
who were near enough, to go by their homes. 
He would never take a furlough, even when sick, 
but always took the sunshine and the storm with 
his men. 

The following extracts from Lieut.-Col. Ashby 
relate to the attempt to destroy the B. & O. Canal, 
and his ** peculiar position," while commanding at 
Harper's Ferry in September, 1 86 1 , and are ad- 
dressed to A. G. Cooper, Richmond. 

" I think it proper to state to you my position. 
I am in command of a detachment of Colonel Mc- 
Donald's regiment together with a force of militia 
furnished me by General Carson, for the purpose 
of protecting Mr. Sharpe, Government Agent, 



The Centaur of the South 35 

now removing engines, etc., from B. & O. Road 
to Strasburg. There are now stationed on the 
Maryland side of the Potomac opposite this coun- 
ty (Jefferson) two infantry regiments guarding the 
canal which is transporting coal and other sup- 
plies. * * * I am confident if not inconsistent 
with the present policy of the Government, that 
I can move over at some convenient point and 
break the canal, securing a large amount of salt, 
etc. * * * I have had occasional skirmishes with 
the enemy in this vicinity, they having crossed 
twice. * * * I have driven them back each 
time without loss, having only one man wounded. 

* * * I have killed several of them each time. 

* * * I write this owing to my peculiar position, 
acting by order of Colonel McDonald, who is or 
is to be in a different locality, too far to give his 
attention to the minutiae of my movements, and 
too having under my command other forces than 
his regiment, with no definite instructions as to the 
policy to be pursued toward the enemy in this 
locality. Will you give them to me?'* ^ 

The following letter from A. A. G. O^ice is 
a reply regarding the destruction of the canal: 

1 O. R. Scries i, \'o]. 5, pages 858-9. 



36 General Turner Ashby 

** Richmond, September 19, 1861. 

" Lieut. -Col. Ashby, 

Commanding Halltown, 
Jefferson County, Va. 

" In reply to your letter of instant from 

Halltown, I am instructed to inform you that it 
has been our object with the President for some 
time past to destroy the canal at any point where 
it could not be repaired. If this can be accom- 
plished at the mouth of the Monocacy, the de- 
struction would be irreparable for an indefinite 
period. The destruction of the canal and the rail- 
road have been cherished objects, and the disap- 
pointment at the failure of all past attempts to 
effect them has been proportionate to the impor- 
tance attached to their achievement. But while 
this much is said on the subject it is intended that 
any attempt of the kind should be made with the 
greatest caution, so that the safety of the com- 
mand * * * . 

Very respectfully, &c., 
R. H. Shelton, 

Asst. Adj. General." ^ 

^ O. R. Series i, Vol. 5, pages 8*58-9. 



The Centaur of the South 37 

The extreme caution enjoined in the above note 
to Ashby no doubt prevented him from executing 
the instructions so long cherished by the Confed- 
erate Government, to have the canal destroyed. 
Ashby always took ** the bulge ** in fighting, as 
all successful leaders do, and when the end justi- 
fied the means he took the risk. The delay im- 
posed by his cautious instructions resulted in the 
following note from Ashby: 

** Camp Evans, November 4, 1861. 
" Secretary of War : 

** The Potomac is higher than it has been since 
1852. It is over the canal bank. The boating is 
probably over for the season. 

" Turner Ashby.'* 



Chapter V. 

BOLIVAR— CHEW'S BATTERY— DAM 

NO. 5— BATH— HANCOCK 

— ROiMNEY. 



Having received orders to march dov/n the 
valley, Colonel McDonald, on arriving at Win- 
chester, with a part of the Seventh, marched to 
the South Branch Valley, and dispatched Ashby 
to a point on the B. & O. Railroad, half way be- 
tween Martinsburg and Harper's Ferry, to take 
up the material of the road. Ashby threw his 
pickets out about Shepardstov/n. The destruc- 
tion of the railroad being completed, he moved 
his camp near Charlestown. This change of 
camp v/as made to meet the enemy concentrating 
at Harper's Ferry. Ashby, ever on the alert, dis- 
covered signs of the enemy's advance. He de- 
cided to strike the first blov/, though his little force 
of cavalry and militia, badly equipped, were much 
inferior to his opponents. This affair can best be 
told in one of the few^ reports he made during the 
39 



40 General Turner Ashby 

war. Modest men usually do justice to every- 
body but themselves, as in this instance: 

" Camp Evans, Halltown, Va., 

"Oct. 17, 1861. 
" My dear Sir: 

** I herewith submit the result of an engage- 
ment had with the enemy on yesterday at 
Bolivar Hill. The enemy occupying that po- 
sition for several days, had been committing 
depredations into the vicinity of the camp. 
Having at my disposal three hundred militia 
armed v/ith flint lock muskets and two com- 
panies of cavalry. Turner's and Mason's of 
Colonel McDonald's regiment, I wrote to Gen- 
eral Evans to co-operate with me, taking position 
on Loudoun Heights and thereby prevent re- 
enforcements from below, and at the same time 
to drive them out of the ferry where they were 
under cover in the buildings. On the evening 
of the 15 th I was re-enforced by two companies 
of Colonel McDonald's regiment (Captain Wing- 
field), fully armed with minie rifles and mounted, 
Captain Miller's about thirty men mounted, the 
balance on foot and with flint lock guns. I had 



The Centaur of the South 41 

one rifled four-pound gun and one twenty-four- 
pound gun badly mounted which broke an axle 
in Bolivar, and I had to spike it. My force on 
the morning of the attack consisted of 300 militia, 
part of two regiments commanded by Colonel 
Albert of Shenandoah and Major Finter of Page. 
I had 180 of Colonel McDonald's Cavalry (Cap- 
tain Henderson's men) under command of Lieut. 
Glynn ; Captain Baylor's mounted militia. Captain 
Hess, about 25 men. 

" The rifled gun was under command of Cap- 
tain Averitt, the 24-pound gun under command 
of Captain Comfield. I made the attack in three 
divisions and drove the enemy from their breast- 
works without the loss of a man, and took position 
upon the hill, driving the enemy as far as Lower 
Bolivar. The large gun broke down and this 
materially affected the result. The detachment 
from the large gun was transferred to the rifled 
piece, and Captain Averitt was sent to Loudoun 
Heights with a message to Colonel Griffin. The 
enemy now formed and charged with shouts and 
yells, which the militia met like veterans. At this 
moment I ordered a charge of cavalry, which was 
handsomely done. Captain Turner's in the lead. 



m 



42 General Turner Ashby 



In this charge five of the enemy were killed. After 
holding this position for four hours the enemy were 
re-enforced by infantry and artillery, and we fell 
back in order to the position their pickets occu- 
pied in the morning. The position Colonel Grif- 
fin held upon Loudoun was such as to be of very 
little assistance to us, not being so elevated as to 
prevent them from controlling the crossing. My 
main force is now at Camp Evans while I hold 
all of the intermediate ground. The enemy left 
the ferry last night and encamped on the first 
plateau on Maryland Heights. My loss was one 
killed and nine wounded. Report from the ferry 
states the loss of the enemy at 25 killed and a 
number \vounded. We have two Yankee pris- 
oners and eight Union men co-operating with 
them. We took a large number of blankets, over- 
coats, and about a dozen guns. I cannot compli- 
ment my officers and men too highly for their gal- 
lant bearing during the whole fight, considering 
the bad arms with which they were supplied and 
their inexperience. 

I cannot impress too forcibly the necessity of the 
perfect organization of my artillery and the for- 
warding at a very early day of the other guns 



The Centaur of the South 43 

promised. These guns are drawn by horses ob- 
tained for the occasion, and are worked by vol- 
unteers. We are in want of cavalry arms and long 
range guns, and would be glad to have an arrange- 
ment made to mount my men. I herewith submit 
Surgeon N. G. West's report, and cannot com- 
pliment him too highly, and respectfully submit his 
name as one worthy of an appointment. He is 
temporarily employed by me as a surgeon. Cas- 
ualties, wounded 13. 

** Your obedient servant, 

** Turner Ashby, 
** Lieut.-Col. C. S. Army, comdg. in Jefferson 

County. 
" Hon. Mr. Benjamin, Acting Sec. of War. 

** P. S. — I am without ammunition for rifled 
cannon (4 pounder rifled to Parrott), also with- 
out friction primers. I am without a regular quar- 
termaster, and consequently have my movements 
greatly embarrassed. If I am to continue with 
this command I would be glad to have the privi- 
lege to recommend for appointment, so that I can 
organize according to what I believe most efficient 
conditions." ^ 



1 O. R. Series i, Vol. s, pages 247-8-9. 



44 General Turner Ashby 

After this engagement the command returned 
to Flowing Springs, but Ashby had his wounded 
sent to Charlestown, where the patriotic citi- 
zens and devoted women ministered to their wants 
and comfort. His men say the night after the 
fight Ashby also personally looked after the 
wounded with the gentleness of a woman. As 
seen from the report of the Secretary of War, 
Ashby felt the need of and saw the importance 
of forming a battery of horse artillery to assist his 
cavalry. While camped at Flowing Springs this 
opportunity offered itself. R. Preston Chew, a 
graduate of the Virginia Military Institute, at 
eighteen years of age at the beginning of the war, 
had been serving up to this time with ** Alle- 
ghany " Johnson, in Greenbrier County as a lieu- 
tenant of artillery. Having received authority 
from the Secretary of War to organize his Horse 
Artillery, he was fortunate in forming on the thir- 
teenth day of November, 1861, a battery with 
R. Preston Chew as Captain, Milton Rouse, First 
Lieutenant, J. W. McCarty, Second Lieutenant, 
and James W. Thompson, Second Lieutenant. 
McCarty, after serving with the battery for some 
time, resigned and joined the cavalry, and Rouse, 



The Centaur of the South 45 

at the reorganization in 1 862, was elected lieuten- 
ant in Baylor's company. 

** Both of these officers served with distinction 
in the cavalry. John H. Williams and J. W. 
Carter (Tuck) were then elected lieutenants of 
Chew's Battery. Captain Chew was promoted 
in the spring of 1 864 to the command of Stuart's 
Horse Artillery. Thompson was then made Cap- 
tain, Williams First Lieutenant, and Carter and 
E. L. Yancey, Second Lieutenants. Major Chew 
was promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel on March 
1st, 1865. The Horse Artillery was then reor- 
ganized, and Thompson was made major and 
Carter captain. The reputation of Thompson 
and Carter is so well known that is is hardly 
necessary for me to allude to it. They both were 
dashing officers, bold almost to a fault in fighting 
their guns, and were highly esteemed for their 
gallantry and enterprise by all the cavalry com- 
manders v/ith whom they served. Thompson was 
killed at Highbridge on the 6th of April, 1 865." ^ 

Chew's Battery organized with three guns, one 
of them the noted " Blakely," an English gun, 
and thirty-three men. 

1 Letter of Colonel Chew, this volume. 



46 General Turner Ashby 

'* General Ashby, when this battery was or- 
ganized, insisted on having all the men mounted, 
and this became the first battery of horse artillery 
thus organized in the Civil War. My ambition 
as a commander of artillery was to handle my 
guns with skill and effect. I had in my battery 
four of the finest gunners in the army, and I taught 
them that their object should be to so handle their 
guns as to drive those of the enemy from their 
front rather than to engage in spectacular display. 
I selected them for their coolness, intelligence, and 
courage, and I can say for them that they rarely 
failed to drive our opponents from the field." ^ 

The writer has been accurate in giving the or- 
ganization of this battery, as Chew was the right 
arm of Ashby as Ashby was of Jackson, and 
Jackson was of Lee. Ashby from his headquar- 
ters at Martinsburg, where General Jackson 
wished him, so as to be about the center of his 
long picket line, had charge of dam No. 5, B. 
& O. Canal. 

Here an incident transpired which was charac- 
teristic of Ashby. While the workmen were 
breaking the dam the enemy's sharpshooters had 

1 Colonel Chew's letter. 



The Centaur of the South 47 

become very troublesome. A section of the Rock- 
bridge Artillery was ordered out to protect volun- 
teer soldiers performing the work. Jackson, Ash- 
by and other officers were watching the effect of 
the artillery fire. In the meantime the enemy 
turned their sharpshooters on the officers on the 
hill. Jackson, seeing that they were drawing the 
fire on his gunners, suggested the officers retire, 
and all did so but Ashby. He remained watch- 
ing and directing the fire of his guns.^ 

This illustrates the heroic character of the man 
in his remark to Colonel Chew. '* He was reck- 
less in the exposure of his person, and when he 
was cautioned about this he replied, ' That an 
officer should always go to the front and take 
risks, in order to keep his men up to the mark.' " 

After breaking the dam Ashby returned to his 
winter quarters at Martinsburg, where he joined 
the Masonic Order. The following remarkable 
letter at this early period of the war throws the 
lime light on the field of war, reflecting the leader 
of the young men of the South. 

» Averitt, page 134. 



48 General Turner Ashby 

** Charlestown, Jefferson County, Va., 
"October 24, 1861. 
" Hon. R. M. Hunter, 

" Secretary of State. 
" Dear Sir: 

^ ** In consequence of my absence from home it 
was only last night that I had the honor to re- 
ceive your letter, and exceedingly regret there is 
a misconception of our wishes at the War De- 
partment in reference to Lieutenant-Colonel Ash- 
by 's promotion. Our main object in asking that 
he be advanced to a full colonelcy is that he may 
thereby be enabled to organize under him an ad- 
ditional force of several hundred young men who 
are anxious to be attached to his command, but 
will not volunteer under another colonel. If they 
organize under Lieutenant-Colonel Ashby now 
they will constitute a portion of Colonel Mc- 
Donald's regiment, and although Lieutenant-Col- 
onel Ashby is at present detached from Colonel 
McDonald's regiment, he is under his orders, and 
the young men I speak of wish to be assured that 
Ashby alone shall command their regiment. The 
condition of our border is becoming more alarm- 

^ O. R. Series i, Vol. 5, pages 919-20. 



The Centaur of the South 49 

ing every day. No night passes without some in- 
famous outrage upon our loyal citizens. Ashby*s 
force is too small to prevent these things, but if 
he be made a colonel, and those he has with him 
now be re-enforced by the volunteers ready to 
rally to his regiment, I promise you that a better 
state of things will exist up here. I am reluctant 
to make suggestions for those who are so much 
better qualified to conduct affairs, but think it 
will not be presumptuous in me to say that it 
would also be well to make Ashby provost 
marshal for the river counties of Jefferson, Berke- 
ley, and Morgan. These counties are infested 
with traitors ; they cannot be controlled or guarded 
against unless some one be invested with au- 
thority to deal with them as they deserve. They 
defy all authority now, and are in daily communi- 
cation with the enemy, as we have every reason 
to believe. The enemy along the canal has been 
re-enforced, and yesterday I noticed them build- 
ing a raft or boat at dam No. 4, and also that 
coal continues to be sent down the canal. I have 
just written a letter to the Secretary of War, and 
hope that you will favor us with your good offices 
in securing the full colonelcy of Ashby. A part 



50 General Turner Ashby 

of his present force is militia, and they are com- 
manded by full colonels who rank Ashby, which 
makes some difficulty always, and which was the 
source of serious trouble to Ashby in his fight at 
Harper's Ferry, Bolivar Heights, on Wednesday 
last, which I myself had occasion to notice there. 
** I am most respectfully, 

** Your obedient servant, 

** A. R. Boteler/' 

General Jackson's objective in this campaign 
in what is now West Virginia was Romney. He 
captured Bath and demanded the surrender of 
Hancock across the Potomac in Maryland. Col- 
onel Ashby, ^ accompanied by Lieutenant Thad- 
deus Thrasher, Company G, crossed the river on 
horseback under a flag of true. They were fired 
on until midway of the stream, although Thrasher 
vigorously waved his flag. The enemy finally dis- 
covering the flag of truce, ceased firing. When 
Ashby landed he was blindfolded and led to the 
commandant, who refused to surrender. Ashby 
having brought this message back to Jackson, the 
latter, after some ineffectual shelling, moved to 

ij. p. West, Company G. 



The Centaur of the South 51 

Unger's store to rest and protect his men and 
horses from the bitter cold of snow and sleet, be- 
fore he moved on Romney. Ashby, with a part of 
his troopers under command of Captains Sheetze 
and Shands, after a short skirmish, captured Rom- 
ney on the tenth day of January, 1 862. General 
Loring was left in command of that place by 
General Jackson. Soon after he evacuated it by 
permission of the Secretary of War.^ 

The enemy reinvested it and took Morefield 
and Bloomery Pass, only twenty-one miles from 
Winchester. 

'* Soon after the intelligence reached me," says 
General Jackson, ** of the enemy's being in force 
at Bloomery Pass, I directed Lieutenant-Colonel 
Ashby of the cavalry to move in that direction 
with all his available force, which he did with his 
accustomed promptness, and on the morning of 
the 1 6th, after a short skirmish, recovered the posi- 
tion. I am under many obligations to this valu- 
able officer for his untiring zeal and successful 
efforts in defending this district." 



1 General Jackson became incensed at this action of the Secretary 
and General Loring for interfering with his plans, and tendered 
his resignation conditionally. 



52 General Turner Ashby 

During this campaign occurred the following 
incident relating to Ashby 's horsemanship : Bishop 
Quintard relates the occurrence thus: 

" Generals Jackson, Loring, Lieutenant-Colonel 
Ashby, and the Bishop were riding towards Rom- 
ney, when they came to a stream on which the 
ice, though quite strong enough to bear a man, 
the General thought it might give way under his 
old sorrel. He accordingly turned up where the 
crossing was narrower; the others followed him. 
After going some distance Colonel Ashby re- 
marked to General Jackson : * General, I will 
cross here.' And withdrawing a little from the 
bank he touched his horse with the spur and 
cleared the stream beautifully." 

The Bishop remarked: ** So perfect was his 
seat, and so exactly did his movements coincide 
with the horse, that the only motion visible in the 
noble rider was the settling of the folds of his 
cape as he landed on the opposite bank.'* ^ 

The winter of 1861-2 was not only severe 
weather, but severe in work on Ashby on his long 
picket line of 75 or 80 miles on the border. His 
men report that he would take this line of outposts 

^ Averitt, page 146-7. 




GENERAL T. J. JACKSON 



The Centaur of the South 53 

in a day of twelve or fourteen hours, and the 
next day would be as fresh as ever.^ 

We see that he was not only the chivalrous 
leader, but the incarnation of hard work. His 
life and habits were pure and temperate. He did 
not use tobacco in any form, and never drank. 
His official family maintained most pleasant rela- 
tions with him. At this time they were Major 
Funston, Surgeons Settle, West, and Bums, Chap- 
lain Averitt, and Adjutant Marshall. In the camp 
and around the mess table with his body servant 
George as a waiter, he was the same considerate 
and generous host as at The Crags of old. On 
the march he was the soldier, approachable by 
all, and knowing each one, many being his neigh- 
bors and friends. In battle the pass-word was 
** follow me," the first to enter and the last to 
leave. 



1 J. p. West and A. Rector. 



1: 



Chapter VI. 

BUNKER HILL— KERNSTOWN. 

The skirmish of Bunker Hill precedes the battle 
of Kernstown some two v/eeks. It is given in 
Ashby's own words. His reports are few, but 
always brief and terse, indicative of a man of 
bold and decisive action. 

** Cavalry Camp, 
** Martinsburg Turnpike, Va., 

** March 8, 1862. 
** I have the honor to report the result of a 
skirmish between Captains S. B. Myers and 
Koonts' companies with an advancing column of 
the enemy coming out from Bunker Hill yester- 
day, brought on by his advance. While Captains 
Myers and Koonts and myself v/ere visiting the 
outposts of pickets, upon learning that he was 
advancing in force, I ordered the two companies 
up from their rendezvous one mile in our rear, 
ordering the pickets in charge of Lieutenant Neff 
to keep him in check as long as possible, which 
he did most gallantly until these companies ar- 
rived, only amounting to forty-five, as many of 
them were still on duty as pickets. Having or- 
55 



56 General Turner Ashby 

dered them to form behind a skirt of timber which 
reached across the turnpike under charge of Cap- 
tain Myers, Captain Koonts and myself moved 
forward to make an observation. When I be- 
came satisfied from movements made by the ene- 
my's officers that he had a co-operating force on 
each flank and was quite strong, which afterwards 
proved true, as I saw two regiments in column 
on our left one-half mile from the turnpike, and 
had reports from scouts of another column on the 
right. Being, however, confident of being able 
to elude them at the proper time, I determined to 
check the column advancing on the turnpike as 
long as prudent to remain, which I did for more 
than one hour, as upon every advance he made, 
my men gave such a galling fire as to drive him 
back out of sight under the hill, at one time driving 
him one-fourth of a mile. I did not allow my men 
to pursue, as I had a position of my choice, and 
feared in the excitement they might charge to the 
supporting column of infantry. After the column 
of infantry upon my left made its appearance 
double quicking and had passed beyond me about 
three hundred yards, I ordered my men to fall 
back slowly, which they did in a walk, turning 
every time the enemy made a demonstration to 



The Centaur of the South 57 

charge and drive them back. In the stand made 
beyond the turnpike the enemy had three men 
wounded that I know of, and two horses left on 
the ground, one wounded (that of an officer). 
I had one man dangerously wounded. I skirmish- 
ed before the advancing column for three miles, 
he throwing shot and shell from two pieces which 
he had on the turnpike. Upon meeting the com- 
panies of cavalry, which I had ordered to re- 
enforce me, I again formed across the road, when 
the enemy halted, and after a little time returned 
towards Bunker Hill, near to which place I fol- 
lowed them, they having their encampment three- 
fourths of a mile this side, their pickets one mile, 
into which I fired. I am pleased to express my 
commendation and appreciation of the conduct of 
Captains S. B. Myers and Koonts, as well as 
Lieutenants Neff, Clark, and Myers, and also the 
privates of their companies, who gave evidence of 
much hope of success to our cause, when the 
struggle for the valley comes. 

" Respectfully, " Turner Ashby, 
** Lieut.-Col. Commanding Cavalry. 
" George G. Judkin, 

Acting Asst. Adj. General.*' ^ 

*0. R. Series i, Vol. 5, page 523. 



38 General Turner Ashby 

The battle of Kernstown was a stubbornly con- 
tested engagement on both sides, and while the 
numbers engaged were small it had far-reaching 
results. General Jackson says in his report that, 
** Owing to the most of our infantry having 
marched thirty-five and forty miles, since the morn- 
ing of the previous day, many were left behind. 
Our number on the evening of the battle was of 
infantry 3,087, of which 2,742 were engaged, 
27 pieces of artillery, of which 18 were engaged. 
Owing to recent heavy cavalry duty and the ex- 
tent of the country to be picketed, only 290 of 
this arm were present to take part in the engage- 
ment." ^ 

General Shields reports : 

** Our force in infantry, cavalry and artillery 
did not exceed 7,000. * * * Though the battle 
had been won, still I could not believe that Jack- 
son would have hazarded a decisive engagement 
at such a distance from the main body without 
expecting re-enforcements, so to be prepared for 
such a contingency I set to work during the night 
to bring together all the troops within my reach. 
I sent an express after Williams' Division, request- 

^ O. R. Series i, Vol. 12, part i, page 380. 



The Centaur of the South 59 

ing the rear brigade, about twenty miles distant, 
to march all night and join me in the morning.'* ^ 

Abstract from " Record of Events " of Wil- 
liams' Division, Fifth Army Corps: "March 
20th: Division ordered to march with all possible 
dispatch from Winchester to Centreville. Briga- 
dier-General Williams assumed command. The 
first brigade marched from Winchester for Manas- 
sas on March 22nd. While at Castleman's Ferry 
waiting for the Third Brigade to cross the Shena- 
doah, the brigade in pursuance of a note from 
Major Copeland, Asst. Adj. -General, counter- 
marched and returned to Berryville, Va. While 
encamped at Berryville, in pursuance of a note 
received from General Shields, commanding at 
Winchester, requesting brigade to support his 
command, then warmly engaged with the enemy 
at Kernstown near Winchester, the brigade march- 
ed from Berryville to the field of battle near Mid- 
dletown, marching thirty-six miles in ten consecu- 
tive hours, and re-enforcing General Shields' com- 
mand while engaged with the enemy." ^ 

Berryville is only ten miles from Winchester, 



1 O. R. Series i, \'ol. 12, part i, pages 341, 342. 

2 Ibid, page 378. 



60 General Turner Ashby 

and Kernstown is only three miles from Win- 
chester. The reader can choose between the 
deadly parallel of General Shields' report and the 
** abstract record of events of General Williams' 
Division." 

General Shields seems to be as careless of facts 
in Virginia as Sherman w^as of fire in Georgia 
and South Carolina. Shields had all of 9,000 
men engaged at Kernstown, allowing only 2,000 
for the re-enforcement of Williams' first brigade. 
Henderson says ** he had at least 9,000," mak- 
ing three to one against Jackson. Yet the fight 
was only a repulse to Jackson, who, while losing 
the battle tactically, won it strategically. He had 
gained his object in preventing the re-enforcements 
of McClellan from leaving the valley. General 
Shields having been wounded on the twenty- 
second of March, General Banks took command 
on the twenty-fourth. It is not the intention of 
the writer to either describe the battles or cam- 
paigns of Jackson. In going into the figures given 
the object is to show the dominant part enacted 
by Ashby in this bloody drama. Opening the 
battle with Ashby 's report, he says: 



The Centaur of the South 61 

" Near Woodstock, Va., 

"March 26, 1862. 
" In reporting the part performed by the troops 
under my command in the engagement of Sun- 
day, March 23rd, it is proper to state that four 
companies of cavalry under Major Funston were 
by your order (Jackson) sent by me to the ex- 
treme left of your line, and acted under your 
orders directly. Having followed the enemy in 
his hasty retreat from Strasburg on Saturday even- 
ing, I came upon the forces remaining in Win- 
chester within a mile of that place, and became 
satisfied that he had but four regiments, and 
learned that they had orders to march in the 
direction of Harper's Ferry. On Sunday morn- 
ing I moved my force of cavalry, battery of three 
guns, and four companies of infantry under Cap- 
tain Nadebousch to Kernstown, when after fir- 
ing a few shots and pressing in the direction of 
Winchester with the cavalry I learned the enemy 
was increasing his force and intended to make a 
stand. He had thrown skirmishers out to threaten 
my guns, when I ordered Captain Nadeboursch 
to protect them against him, which he did by 
driving him from his place in the woods most gal- 



62 General 1 urner A.shby 

lantly ; and it was with extreme regret that I found 
it necessary to order him to fall back, which I 
did owing to the enemy getting into position upon 
my left with artillery and infantry to command 
the position taken by Captain Nadeboursch. Ac- 
companying this is Captain Nadeboursch's report. 
Upon falling back, which I did for one-fourth of 
a mile, I received your order to prepare for an 
advance and learned that your force had arrived. 
My order being to threaten the front and right, 
I placed two guns to bear upon the front and one 
upon his left, where I kept up an incessant fire 
with some visible effect, gaining ground upon him, 
when I ordered a charge upon his extreme left, 
where I drove their advance upon the main line, 
having one lieutenant (Thaddeus Thrasher) kill- 
ed, and six privates wounded. We here took six 
or seven prisoners. The loss of Lieutenant 
Thrasher is a great one to his company and regi- 
ment, as his boldness and efficiency had made 
their mark in the regiment. One man was taken 
prisoner upon the left of Captain Turner's com- 
pany, having been thrown from his horse and 
ordered to the rear. When the firing ceased at 
twilight I ordered my guns back to the rear, and 






The Centaur of the South 63 

cavalry to cover the flank of Colonel Burk's com- 
mand coming out in the turnpike, and after they 
had passed remained at Bartonsville w^ith my com- 
panies until two o'clock on Monday morning, 
when the enemy again advanced cautiously. 
** Respectfully, 

** Turner Ashby, 
" Colonel Commanding Cavalry."^ 

Endorsements on this report by Ashby show he 
had not more than one hundred and fifty with 
him of the cavalry. Major Funston having a hun- 
dred and forty. The endorsement also shows: 

** Owing to the arduous duties imposed upon 
my cavalry companies up to the time the enemy 
left Strasburg upon his retreat to Winchester, I 
started in pursuit with one company (Captain 
Sheetze) with orders for Captains Bowen and 
Turner to come on during the night." ^ 

A fine thing is related to the writer as an inci- 
dent of the battle of Kernstown.'^ Just before 
Ashby made his main charge with cavalry that 



^O. R. Series i, Vol. 12, part i, page 385. 
2 Ibid, page 386. 
»J. P. West. 



64 General Turner Ashby 

day, a lieutenant of Company G, the Maryland 
Company of the command, flushed a fox and 
dashed after it across field and fence until he ran 
it almost into the Federal lines. They, appre- 
ciating the humor and gallantry of the action, re- 
fused to fire on him, and cheered him lustily. 
Wheeling and riding back to his command, he 
met Ashby forming for the charge. He said to 
Ashby: ** Colonel, let me make this fight. I have 
been over the ground." Lieutenant Thaddeus 
Thrasher led this charge, and Ashby in his re- 
port, regrets the great loss of this dashing Mary- 
lander. 

General Jackson, in his official report, says of 
this campaign, relative to Ashby: 

" On the preceding Friday evening a dispatch 
was received from Colonel Turner Ashby, com- 
manding the cavalry, stating that the enemy had 
evacuated Strasburg. Apprehensive that the 
Federals vs^ould leave this military district, I de- 
termined to follow them with all my available 
force. Ashby with his cavalry and Chew's bat- 
tery was already in front. 

" Leaving Colonel Ashby with his command 



The Centaur of the South 65 

on the valley turnpike with Colonel Burk's brigade 
a support for his batteries, and also to act as a 
reserve, I moved * * * to our left for the pur- 
pose of securing a commanding position on the 
enemy's right. 

"During the engagement Colonel Ashby, vv^ith 
a portion of his command, including Chew's bat- 
tery, which rendered valuable service, remained 
on our right, and not only protected our rear in 
the vicinity of the valley turnpike, but also served 
to threaten the enemy's front and left. Colonel 
Ashby fully sustained his deservedly high reputa- 
tion by the able manner in which he discharged 
the important trust confided to him. 

** Leaving Ashby in front, the remainder of 
my command fell back to its wagons and biv- 
ouacked for the night." ^ 

Colonel Preston Chew, who was with Ashby 
from the fall of 1861 to his death, a trained sol- 
dier and commanding his artillery, and an able 



iQ. R. Series i, Vol. 12, part i, pages 380-1-2-3. 



>) 



66 General Turner Ashby 

authority, says in his letter to the writer, which 
is made a part of this sketch : 

** You can glance over the letter in Averitt's 
book and you will find among other things an 
allusion to the battle of Kernstown, where fully 
alive to the great necessity of defending Jackson's 
right flank, and keeping the valley pike clear, he 
displayed a skill as remarkable as ever Forrest did 
on any battlefield. 

** I have always believed his audacity saved 
General Jackson's army from total destruction at 
the battle of Kernstown. Ashby moved boldly 
forward with his command, consisting of a few 
companies of cavalry and my three guns, and 
protecting his men from observation by woods and 
ravines, opened on them with artillery, and with- 
stood from ten o'clock until dark the fire of the 
enemy's artillery, sometimes as many as three or 
four batteries. When the enemy moved forward 
he dashed upon and repulsed them with his cav- 
alry. Had the enemy known our strength or not 
been deceived by the audacity of the movement 
they could have swept forward upon the turn- 
pike, turned Jackson's right flank and cut off his 
retreat by way of the turnpike. They, however, 



The Centaur of the South 67 

made little effort to advance, and we remained in 
our position until Jackson had returned to New- 
town." ^ 

Colonel Chew, at the age of twenty-two years, 
commanded all the horse artillery in the Army 
of Northern Virginia.- No greater tribute could 
be paid to his worth than such high rank, and 
his opinions and judgment are well worth care- 
ful consideration. If the reader will consider his 
comparison of Ashby with Forrest it will be seen 
how great the compliment is to Ashby. Ashby 
developed his fame and genius the first year of 
the war, and was a brigadier-general while For- 
rest was still commanding a regiment. Colonel 
Chew compares Ashby at the start with Forrest 
at his best. It has been said by the historians 
of the battle of Kernstown that Ashby made a 
mistake for once in the information he gave Gen- 
eral Jackson, that the Federal forces were with- 
drawing from the valley, and hence Jackson's de- 
feat at Kernstown. The writer is so fortunate 
as to give for the first time in print one of the 
sources of this information on which General Ash- 



1 Colonel Chew's letter, Averitt, pages 272-3. 

2 Official Records. 



68 General Turner Ashby 

by reported the movements of the enemy on tlie 
eve of the battle of Kernstown. Colonel Jonah 
Tavener, an elderly gentleman of Loudoun Coun- 
ty, Virginia, too old to be in the army, told the 
writer and many others soon after the war that 
he was on his way to the valley from Loudoun, 
and after he had passed over the Blue Ridge 
Mountain he saw a large body of Federal infantry 
coming from Winchester to Castleman's Ferry. 
He evaded the Federal army and flanked Win- 
chester to the south and soon struck Ashby' s out- 
posts. He asked to be taken at once to Ashby, 
whom he knew well personally, and reported 
what he had just seen. Ashby sent him with a 
messenger at once to Jackson, to whom he re- 
ported the same facts. In the abstract from the 
** Record of Events '* quoted in this chapter, Wil- 
liams marched from Winchester for Manassas on 
the twenty-second of March, and while waiting 
at Castleman's Ferry for the Third Brigade to 
cross the Shenandoah, the First Brigade was or- 
dered back to Berr)^ille, and from there, on Gen- 
eral Shields' dispatch, made a forced march to 
Kernstown and participated in the fight. Colonel 
Tavener proves that Ashby had this information. 



The Centaur of the South 69 

and both Ashby and Tavener are borne out by 
the United States Government reports. These re- 
enforcements decided the day against Jackson's 
over-marched and hard fought veterans, and Gen- 
eral Garnett without ammunition was compelled 
to fall back. General Jackson was so much in- 
censed at Garnett*s withdrawal that he had him 
tried by a court martial. General Dabney Maury, 
in his ** Reminiscenses of the War," states that 
General Garnett was unanimously acquitted by 
the court. After the charge had been made by 
General Jackson, he says that General Garnett 
refused to defend himself, saying he would ** stand 
or fall on General Jackson's statement," or words 
to that effect. General Jackson says he did not 
intend to offer battle the afternoon of the twenty- 
third, but finding his men in good spirits, deter- 
mined to strike at once. The hind sights would 
indicate, that if he had waited until the morning 
of the twenty-fourth Williams' Division would 
have been over the Blue Ridge in Loudoun on 
the twenty-third and too far to come to the as- 
sistance of Shields. General Ashby at the begin- 
ning of the war had two magnificent horses, a 



70 General Turner Ashby 

black and a white. The black horse was not 
tractable and somewhat vicious, and could only 
be controlled by himself. The white was the 
famous Telegraph stock, splendid in form and 
action, responding to every touch of his master's 
hand. At Kernstown, mounted on this white 
charger, he was not only the beau ideal of the 
army, but the centaur of the South. 

" Nor was his reputation confined to the Con- 
federate ranks. * I think our men,* says a Federal 
officer, * had a kind of admiration for him as he 
sat upon his horse and let them pepper away at 
him as if he enjoyed it.* Bold enterprises were 
succeeded by others yet more bold, and to use 
the words of a gentleman, who, although he was 
a veteran of four years service, was but nineteen 
years of age when Richmond fell, * we thought 
no more of riding through the enemy's bivouacs 
than of riding around our father's farm. So con- 
genial were the duties of the cavalry, so attractive 
the life and associations, that it was no rare thing 
for a Virginia gentleman to resign a commission 
in another arm in order to join his friends and kins- 
men as a private in Ashby*s ranks.' * As cavalry,' 



The Centaur of the South 71 

says one of Banks' brigadiers, * Ashby*s men were 
greatly superior to ours.' " ^ 

Th^ battle of Kernstown closed with the ob- 
ject of Jackson accomplished, and Ashby's fame 
gleaming near its end but nearer the stars. 



Henderson, Vol. i, pages 2234-5. 



Chapter VII. 

retreat from kernstown— 

ashby's resignation 

—McDowell. 

Monday morning, the twenty-fourth of March, 
1862, Shields' army advanced cautiously, with 
Banks in supreme command. Ashby and Chew's 
battery, disputing every foot of the ground, gave 
Jackson and his foot-sore veterans time to slowly 
fall back. Shields' army did not press the retreat, 
and this not being Ashby's method of fighting, he 
would wheel Chew's battery on hill tops and 
wake the enemy up with the bark of his ** Blake- 
ley," the celebrated English gun, ** noted for its 
accuracy of fire and explosion of shell." After 
the lagging advance of the enemy had been 
gingered by the ** Blakeley," and the Federal 
cavalry showed up, Ashby turned his squadrons 
loose in the hurly burly of the charge. This was 
magnificent, but it was war, too. It made the 
advance of the enemy still more cautious, giving 
the infantry more time to rest and Jackson more 
time to reorganize his shattered columns. A 
strange thing occurred on this retreat, and strange- 

73 



74 General Turner Ashby 

ly, too, fulfilling the prophecy of the Hon. A. R. 
Boteler, quoted in his letter in one of the earlier 
chapters of this sketch. Ashby's horse was 
more than doubled by volunteer recruits. Ad- 
vancing and victorious armies have been recruited, 
but never before did a retreating army draw like 
the leadership of Ashby — more than doubling 
his original command. Ashby's twelve companies 
were increased to 26 companies. About this time 
the gallant Captain Thomas Marshall ^ joined 
the command. Afterwards he was promoted to 
Major and Lieutenant-Colonel of the Seventh 
Regiment. He was killed later in the war, but 
not until he had left the influence of a noble Chris- 
tian character impressed upon his regiment. 

Captain T. B. Massie ^ brought in his com- 
pany, principally mounted at his own expense, 
and afterwards became Lieutenant-Colonel of the 
12th Regiment. This is the same officer, who 
in the fall of 1861 assisted Ashby at Bolivar 
Heights with a militia company, and acted, it 
is said, with marked gallantry on that occasion, 
as later at the fight of Trevillians. General 
Hampton at Trevillians reports that, ** Lieutenant- 

1 Averitt, page 170. 

2 Averitt, page 169. 



The Centaur of the South 75 

Colonel Massie of the 1 2th Regiment was wound- 
ed while gallantly leading his men over the ene- 
my's works.** The bold Captains Willis from 
Rappahannock and Harness of Hardy joined 
Ashby here;^ and so the good work went on 
under the crack of the Colts and the roar of the 
guns. While Ashby was picketing on the retreat 
an incident transpired worth relating. It is given 
by Captain Randolph. "The firing had be- 
come quite heavy and the minie balls were whist- 
ling right and left. The place indeed was a hot 
one, when Captain John Henderson, then disabled 
and off duty, rode up to where Colonel Ashby 
was sitting on his horse watching the skirmishers. 
** Good morning. Colonel,** said Henderson, ** I 
have brought you some breakfast, but this is 
rather a warm place to enjoy it.** " Never mind 
that,'* said Ashby, ** your kindness is w^ell timed, 
for I am very hungry.** Henderson handed him 
some hard boiled eggs. Thanking him, the 
Colonel turned and shared them with him. Then 
throwing hie leg over the pommel of the saddle 
soon dispatched his share of the breakfast. I 



1 Averitt, page 169. 



76 General Turner Ashby 

waited some time before I could enjoy my part 
of it. After he had finished the Colonel rode 
rapidly towards the turnpike, and soon the peculiar 
booming of the little Blakeley told that hot work 
was on hand." ^ 

A quotation from a gallant infantry officer of 
the Second Virginia Regiment, Stonewall Brig- 
ade, will show how the infantry felt, with Ashby 
commanding the rear guard. This officer being 
an old and valued friend of the v/riter, they have 
often talked war. He has repeatedly said : ** That 
he never felt safer in his own home in times of 
peace than when Ashby was between his regi- 
ment and the enemy. That it was about impos- 
sible to surprise him.'* Colonel Allen says of 
this officer, then adjutant of his regiment, in his 
official report on the battle of Kernstown : ** Ad- 
jutant Hunter, R. W., remained mounted during 
the day, near me, and maintained the position of 
the line by coolness and courage." He was later 
in the war promoted to major on General J. B. 
Gordon's staff as Adjutant-General. In crossing 
the bridge on the north branch of the Shenandoah, 
Ashby ordered a guard to dismount and burn it. 

1 Averitt, page 172. 



The Centaur of the South 77 

The enemy perceiving his object, charged and 
drove off the guard. Ashby then stopped to bum 
it himself, vv^hen four of the enemy charged him, 
shooting his horse and demanding his surrender. 
Refusing to surrender, although his pistols w^ere 
empty, fortunately at this instant, Harry Hatcher 
of Company A dashed up and shot one; Captain 
Koonts, one; a dismounted man, a third, and the 
fourth ran off. Harry Hatcher vv^as a brother of 
Lieutenant-Colonel Dan Hatcher, who com- 
manded at one time Ashby's old Company A, 
and rose to be Lieutenant-Colonel of the Seventh 
Virginia. They w^ere both dashing soldiers. 
Jackson reached Harrisonburg on the nineteenth 
day of April, and, the enemy still follow^ing him, 
he left the turnpike, struck into the mountains, 
through the gaps, rested in the valley of Elk Run 
near Swift Run Gap in the Blue Ridge. Being 
in the position of his choice, he could rest and 
reorganize his little band, or, if pressed too hard, 
could fall back through the gap to the Confederate 
forces connecting with Richmond. Banks, by 
Ashby*s vigilance, seems to have " lost *' Jack- 
son, after he could not find him on the Valley 
turnpike, and stopped his pursuit. Whilst rest- 



78 General Turner Ashby 

ing here, Ashby had his second fight with his 
friends. We have seen the first was with General 
J. E. Johnston in the summer of 1861, and how 
he won that fight. We will now see a harder 
contest than the first, how the country gentleman, 
without military education, except in the camp 
and on the battlefields, deported himself. The 
historians of Jackson, Dabney, Cooke, and Hen- 
derson, have misrepresented Ashby in the matter 
of his resignation. The Rev. Mr. Averitt has re- 
ported the facts correctly, but as United States 
war records were not published in 1 867, the offi- 
cial records were not then accessible and have 
here for the first time been presented in this con- 
nection. Dr. Dabney, Cooke, and Henderson 
all say that Ashby ** threatened ** to resign, plac- 
ing him in the light of a sulky boy, lacking the 
courage to be man enough to complete the threat 
by actual resignation. There is no excuse for Dr. 
Dabney, as he was Jackson's Adjutant-General, 
and, therefore, had the opportunity to know all 
about it. There is more excuse for Cooke, as 
he probably followed Dabney, and was not on 
the ground. There is still less excuse for Hender- 
son, because he had the official records now be- 



The Centaur of the South 79 

fore the writer, and quotes from them through- 
out his life of Jackson. In developing Ashby's 
resignation there is also developed the greatest 
evidence of his brilliant career. Here follow^s the 
record : 

" Headquarters Valley District,, 

"Staunton, May 5, 1862. 
" W. H. Taylor, A. A. G., 

** Sir: — Your letter of the 16th ultimo did not 
reach me until the 2nd instant. Pressure of busi- 
ness, I regret to say, has prevented an earlier 
answer. I so felt the importance of having the 
cavalry of this district more thoroughly organized, 
drilled, and disciplined as to induce me to take 
action in the matter; but Colonel Ashby claimed 
I could not interfere with his organization, as he 
was acting under the instruction of the late Secre- 
tary of War, Mr. Benjamin. These instructions 
or authority are contained in letters written on 
the 21st and 22nd of February last, and au- 
thorized Colonel Ashby to raise cavalry, infantry, 
and heavy artillery. Copies of these letters have 
been forwarded to the War Department, accom- 
panied with the endorsed communication from 



80 General Turner Ashby 

Colonel Ashby and my remarks thereon. Colonel 
Ashby and Major Funston are the only field offi- 
cers belonging to the cavalry under Colonel Ash- 
by. Colonel Ashby reports that there has never 
been any regimental organization of any part of 
his command. When I took steps for organizing, 
drilling, and disciplining the cavalry both of its 
field officers sent in their resignations, and such 
was Colonel Ashby's influence over his command 
that I became v^^ell satisfied that if I persisted in 
my attempt to increase the efficiency of the cavalry 
it would produce the contrary effect, as Colonel 
Ashby's influence, who is very popular with his 
men, would be thrown against me. Under these 
circumstances I refrained taking further action in 
the matter (as I was in the face of the enemy) 
until the War Department should have an oppor- 
tunity of acting in the case. Colonel Ashby re- 
ports 21 companies of cavalry, but he includes a 
number of men who re-enlisted from the infantry 
with an understanding that they should serve 
with the cavalry, but I have uniformly prohibited 
such re-enlistments, as it is important that men 
should continue in that arm in which they have 
been sei-ving. At present there is no field officer 



The Centaur of the South 81 

on duty with the cavalry referred to, as Colonel 
Ashby and Major Funston are both sick. It is 
important that the cavalry should be organized 
into regiments at the earliest practicable moment. 

«( T 

1 am sir, 

** Your obedient servant, 

** T. J. Jackson, 
" Major-General." ^ 

(Endorsement) 

"Richmond, May 7, 1862. Respectfully re- 
ferred to the Secretary of War with the request 
that explicit instructions be given in reference to 
the command of Colonel Ashby, and its organiza- 
tion. I did not know before that Colonel Ashby's 
command embraced more than cavalry, which I 
have been endeavoring to get organized and in- 
structed. 

** R. E. Lee, General." ^ 



iQ. R. Series i, Vol. 12, part 3, page 880. 
2 Ibid. 



82 General Turner Ashby 

The writer is fortunate again in throwing the 
calcium light of living testimony on what General 
Jackson meant by " organizing, drilling, and dis- 
ciplining " Ashby*s command. Dr. Thomas L. 
Settle, a surgeon on his staff and a life-time friend, 
says in his letter in this sketch: 

***** Ashby tendered his resignation be- 
fore the Banks* campaign. We were encamped 
near Conrad's store on the east bank of the south 
branch of the Shenandoah, where the road crosses 
the Blue Ridge through Swift Run Gap, Ewell 
coming over the mountain at this point to re- 
enforce Jackson. Ashby was quartered near the 
river, Jackson between Ashby and the mountain. 
One morning, I think to the best of my recollec- 
tion it was in April just before Jackson moved 
against Milroy at McDowell, Ashby received the 
order to divide his command, he to retain com- 
mand of one-half and Major Funston to com- 
mand the other half, and to report for duty to 
General Winder, the other to General Taliaferro. 
I remember he, Ashby, was very indignant and 
said General Jackson was overstepping his au- 
thority; that he, Ashby, had obtained from the 
War Department authority to organize his com- 



The Centaur of the South 83 

mand, and he would not submit to such treat- 
ment, and if they were of equal rank he would 
challenge Jackson. Though he estimated him 
as a good man and a very valuable servant to the 
C. S. A., " but before I will tamely submit I will 
tender my resignation, and it will be necessary to 
forward through General Jackson as my chief." 
It happened that the writer of this was the bearer 
of the resignation to General Jackson's quarters. 
On reaching General Jackson's quarters I met the 
late H. Kyd Douglass, a member of General Jack- 
son's staff, delivered the document and said I ex- 
pected to return in about an hour (Dr. T. was 
visiting a sick soldier beyond Jackson's headquar- 
ters) and would call for the reply. When I got 
back Major Douglass informed me there was no 
answer. The next day Generals Winder and 
Talliaferro came down to Ashby's quarters, spent 
the greater part of the day and the matter was 
amicably and satisfactorily adjusted." 

General Jackson after this also sent for General 
Ashby, and had a personal interview with him, 
which is related by his chief of artillery. Colonel 
Chew speaks to the point on Ashby's resignation 
in his letter : " About Ashby's resignation, after 



84 General Turner Ashby 

he tendered his resignation, Jackson sent for him. 
This occurred at Conrad's store. On his return, I 
with several of his officers was on the porch, and 
when he came up he told us what had occurred, 
and my recollection of it is as follows: When he 
met Jackson, Jackson asked him to withdraw his 
resignation, and told him what reasons had in- 
fluenced him, Jackson, in withdrawing his resig- 
nation when the Secretary of War sent an order 
over his head to Loring to fall back from Romney. 
Ashby told him he had tendered his resignation in 
earnest and wanted it forwarded to the Secretary 
of War, and but for the fact that he had the 
highest respect for Jackson's ability as a soldier, 
and believed him essential to the cause of the 
South, he would hold him to a personal account 
for the indignity he had put upon him. He then 
turned and went out of the tent. He said his 
purpose was to organize an independent com- 
mand and operate in the lower valley and the 
Piedmont country. All of the officers present de- 
clared their intention to go with him. Jackson 
restored the command to him and all went 
smoothly from that time." 

It will be seen that Dr. Settle speaks of Ashby 




COLONEL R. PRESTON CHEW 



The Centaur of the South 85 

before he carried his resignation, and Colonel 
Chew after he had resigned, and after his inter- 
view with Jackson. Colonel Chew's reference to 
Ashby forming an independent command meant 
of course if his resignation had been accepted, 
thereby taking his command from him, but, as 
we have seen, his command was restored to him 
immediately, thereby closing the incident. In 
further evidence of the fact that this was what 
General Jackson did do, the following order is 
given from ** Ashby and his Compeers,'* the 
author of which was Ashby 's chaplain, and on 
the ground at the time, the Rev. Mr. Averitt: 
** Headquarters, Army Valley. 

** The General Commanding : 

** Hereby orders companies A, B, C, D, E, F, 
G, H, I, K of Ashby's cavalry to report to 
Brigadier-General Talliaferro and to be attached 
to his command; the other companies of the same 
command will report to Brigadier-General Winder 
to be attached to his command. Colonel Turner 
Ashby will command the advance guard of the 
Army of the Valley when on an advance, and 
the rear guard when in retreat, applying to Gen- 



86 General Turner Ashby 

erals TalKaferro and Winder for troops whenever 
they may be needed. 

** By order of Major-General T. J. Jackson." 

It will be noticed in the first place in the com- 
munication of General Jackson of May 5th to 
General Lee, that General Jackson did not ex- 
plain to Lee that he had taken Ashby's command 
from him in order to ** organize, drill, and discip- 
line '* it. In the next place, we find in General 
Jackson's letter that he refrained taking further 
action, etc., owing to his, Ashby 's, influence with 
his men. The next day Ashby rode his usual 
wearisome picket line as if nothing had occurred. 
His conduct in this affair was one of noble hau- 
teur. General Ashby treated General Jackson in 
the same manner that General Jackson treated the 
Secretary of War a short time before when the 
Secretary interfered with his orders with General 
Loring at Romney, but with this difference : Jack- 
son tendered his resignation conditionally, as 
quoted in a previous chapter from his official re- 
port ; Ashby actually resigned. We see now how 
Ashby won his second fight with his friends. In 
passing from this incident the attention of the 



The Centaur of the South 87 

reader is called especially to the instructions or 
authority referred to in General Jackson's letter to 
General Lee conferring on General Ashby the 
power to raise cavalry, infantry, and heavy artil- 
lery, vv^hich will be discussed in another chapter. 
General Banks still supinely lagged in Harrison- 
burg, because Ashby would not permit him to 
find Jackson. It is easy to understand why Ashby 
had not organized and drilled his command, when 
one reads his busy life from the eighteenth day of 
April, 1 86 1 , at Harper's Ferry, to his death. The 
business of his life was in ** the horrid front of 
war." Night and day it was along the picket 
line, a skirmish or a battle. He and his men 
lived in the saddle. The only local habitat he 
ever had v/as in front of Banks before he re- 
treated down the valley. Lieutenant-Colonel 
Chew speaks on this point, and the reader can see 
whether he or his command had any rest then: 
** At Edinburg, where the two armies confronted 
each other, for thirty days his cavalry dismounted 
and our three guns were almost constantly engaged 
for twenty-eight days. He had at that time 
twenty-six companies of cavalry. General Jones 
said the Seventh Virginia Cavalry had the finest 



88 General Turner Ashby 

lot of company officers of any regiment he ever 
saw. Ashby had planned a regimental organiza- 
tion, and selected his field officers when the con- 
troversy between General Jackson and himself 
occurred. Ashby's cavalry were picketed from 
Franklin to the country east of the Blue Ridge 
Mountains.'* 

Further, more than half of Ashby's horse had 
only joined him on the retreat from Kernstovm, 
and had been with him less than thirty days 
when General Jackson attempted to organize, 
drill, and discipline them, by taking them from 
his command. General Jackson passed over the 
Blue Ridge Mountains, and swinging around 
through Albemarle County left General Ev/ell in 
Swift Run Gap to bar the passage of Banks if 
necessary. General Jackson's objective was to 
make connection with General Edward Johnston, 
who was watching General Milroy approaching 
from the west. Ashby so completely masked this 
movement from Banks that he seemed as ignorant 
of it as an unborn fledgling. This was done too 
with only a part of his command. He himself 
remaining to shell Banks and hold his attention 
while he sent several squadrons to act as the eyes 



The Centaur of the South 89 

and ears of Jackson. At McDowell, Jackson and 
Johnston met Milroy in a fierce bout for hours, 
repulsing him, and the next day Milroy did not 
take water, but to the woods, burning them as he 
retreated to obscure and shield his retreat. Jack- 
son finding he could not pursue Milroy successfully 
returned to Harrisonburg. Banks still having lost 
Jackson began to fear that his communications 
might be destroyed, and acting on this idea fell 
back to New Market. This shows how com- 
pletely Ashby threw dust in his eyes. Ashby 
pressed closely on the heels of Banks down the 
valley some twenty miles before he halted at 
Woodstock. Still, ** like a wolf on the fold," Ash- 
by hung on Banks' rear until he pulled up at Stras- 
burg parallel to the northwest end of the Mas- 
sanutton Mountains, where he threw up fortifica- 
tions. From this point Banks threw out on his 
left flank two detachments of troops, one near 
Front Royal and the other at Buckton Station 
on the Manassas Gap Railroad. 



Chapter VIII. 

FRONT ROYAL— BUCKTON 
STATION. 

The location of the opposing forces at this time 
was, Jackson at Harrisonburg, Ewell in Swift 
Run Gap, Banks at Strasburg, fortified. Ashby, 
with a part of his command, in Banks' front, with 
his pickets and companies extending from Frank- 
lin, east of the Blue Ridge, and scouting for 
Ewell.i 

Before going down the Luray Valley, we will 
see how Jackson had to literally break away from 
General J. E. Johnston, his immediate commander, 
by appealing to General Lee, who ranked 
Johnston, for permission to make this campaign, 
the most brilliant and crowning glory of his career. 
General Johnston writes General Ewell, May 1 7, 
1 862 : ** If Banks is fortfying near Strasburg the 
attack will be too hazardous. In such an event 
we must leave him in his works. General Jack- 
son can observe him and you can come eastward. 



O. R. Letter from Ewell to Ashby. 

91 



92 General Turner Ashby 

* * * We want troops here (Richmond), none, 
therefore, must keep away unless employing a 
greatly superior force of the enemy. * * * My 
general idea is to gather here (Richmond) all the 
troops who do not keep away from McClellan, 
greatly superior forces.'* General Johnston adds 
in a postscript: "After reading this, send it to 
General Jackson, for whom it is intended as well 
as yourself." ^ 

General Ewell, it is reported, took the note 
in person to General Jackson for his, Ewell's, pro- 
tection, and got General Jackson to endorse his 
orders on the note, as they were contrary to the 
orders received from General Johnston. 

(Endorsement) 

" Major-General Ewell : 

** Suspend the execution of the order for re- 
turning to the east until I receive an answer to 
my telegram. 

** Respectfully, 

" T. J. Jackson, Major-General.'* 



1 O. R. Series i, Vol. 12, part 3, pages 896-7. 



The Centaur of the South 93 

**May 20. 1862. 
" General R. E. Lee : 

"I am of opinion that an attempt should be 
made to defeat Banks, but under the instructions 
just received from General Johnston I do not feel 
at liberty to make an attack. Please answer by 
telegraph at once.'* ^ 

The telegram to Lee was in accordance with 
Lee*s and Jackson's original plan as early as the 
preceding April. Before General Johnston, on 
the seventeenth of May, had ordered Ewell to 
come eastward, General Lee, on the sixteenth of 
May, directed General Jackson as follows : 

" Whatever movement you make against Banks 
do it speedily, and if successful drive him back 
toward the Potomac and create the impression as 
far as practicable that you design threatening that 
line." 2 

On April 25, 1862, General Lee directed 
Jackson: "The blow, wherever struck," refer- 
ring either to Banks or at Warrenton, " must, to 



1 O. R. Series i, Vol. 12, part 3, page 898. 

= 0. R. Series i, Vol. 12, part 3, pages 892-3. 



94 General Turner Ashby 

be successful, be sudden and heavy, the troops 
must be efficient and light." ^ 

General Jackson, having received General Lee*s 
sanction to move on Banks in answer to his tele- 
gram, and having put his own division on the 
march, wrote to Ewell: 

" On the road to Newtown, 

"May 24, 1862.5.45 p.m. 
** Major-General Ewell: 

** Major-General Jackson requests that you will 
at once move with all your force on Winchester. 

9^ Ifi !ft 

" Respectfully, 

** R. L. Dabney." 

The eagles have started at last to strike Banks 
and baptize him in the blood of his men with a 
new name, ** Jackson's Quartermaster and Com- 
missary General." At the beginning of this cam- 
paign, the Sixth Virginia Cavalry and the Second, 
commanded respectively by Colonel Stanhope 
Flournoy and Thomas Mumford, joined General 



iQ. R. Series i, Vol. 12, part 3, page 866. 



The Centaur of the South 95 

Ewell under Jackson. They were cordially wel- 
comed by Jackson*s and Ashby*s men. Ashby*s 
command had been worked hard, man and horse, 
all the year, and they rejoiced at the addition of 
these two fine regiments, which were well drilled 
and equipped. They were under the command 
of General George H. Steuart of Maryland. They 
had served under the dashing Jeb Stuart and their 
metal was worthy of their leader. They will be 
heard from later, as they came under the com- 
mand of Ashby at the request of both of their 
Colonels. The upheaval of nature has thrown out 
between the Blue Ridge and the North Moun- 
tains the beautiful Massanutton range, some forty 
or fifty miles long, with but one gap diagonally 
opposite from Luray in the Luray Valley, and 
New Market in the Shenandoah Valley. The 
Massanutton Mountain became the natural shield 
for Jackson and Ashby to play their tactical game 
of hide and seek on the Federal commanders. 
Ashby at the beginning of the advance was watch- 
ing Banks at Strasburg. 

After an interview with General Ewell, his 
second in command of the infantry, a stubborn 
and brilliant fighter, Jackson pushed his army 



96 General Turner Ashby 

down towards the Potomac, and having been re- 
enforced by that other splendid fighter. General 
Dick Taylor, a part of Ewell's command, crossed 
the Massanutton by the gap to Luray. That night 
Jackson completed his juncture with the remainder 
of EwelFs division. The combined force marched 
on towards Front Royal. Colonel Ashby's or- 
ders led him to the northwest and then across 
the south bank of the Shenandoah, leading to 
Buckton Station on the Manassas Gap Railroad. 
Passing around the northeast end of the Massa- 
nutton Mountain in the direction of Strasburg, 
he left a cordon of pickets to observe that place, 
and pushed on to Buckton Station, where Banks 
had a detachment of infantry quartered in the 
depot and another house. He immediately recon- 
noitered the enemy's position and as immediately 
charged it. The first dash not being successful, 
he charged again and drove the enemy from the 
depot, destroyed it filled with stores, and cut the 
telegraph wires. The infantry, having retreated, 
took shelter behind the railroad embankment and 
kept up a galling fire. Ashby, realizing it would 
not do to leave the enemy in the rear of Jack- 
son, put himself at the head of his column and 



V:. 



The Centaur of the South 97 

ordered his men to follow him, and made a des- 
perate onslaught. He is said to have longed then 
for the little ** Blakeley." In this sharp affair he 
lost two of his best officers and most gallant sol- 
diers, Captains Sheetz and Fletcher. Captain 
John Fletcher of Loudoun County is well remem- 
bered by the writer. He was one of the original 
members of Ashby's old volunteer company, and 
had served with distinction from the John Brown 
raid up to his death. Harry Hatcher of Com- 
pany A and Inskip of Company F were 

wounded. It is recalled that this old Company 
A of the Seventh produced many officers from 
its ranks — five or six captains, who at different 
times commanded the company, double that num- 
ber of lieutenants, a major, lieutenant-colonel, 
colonel, and brigadier-general. It furnished also 
two gallant captains and one lieutenant to Colonel 
Mosby's battalion.^ This section of Virginia, parts 
of Loudoun and Fauquier, was the center of Mos- 
by's confederacy. Colonel John S. Mosby was 
a famous commander and leader of a famous 
battalion. He and his bold riders not only made 



1 Captain J. W. Foster, Captain Alfred Glascock and Lieutenant 
Harry Hatcher. 



98 General Turner Ashby 

history, but it is estimated that he prevented the 
juncture of Sheridan with Grant for some six 
months. At Buckton Station took place a des- 
perate hand-to-hand encounter between two mem- 
bers of Company A of the Seventh and five 
Yankees. Harry Hatcher, as he was leaving the 
field, was challenged by five of the enemy, in- 
fantry. He charged them at once. W. A. Brent, 
having been unhorsed and his pistol lost, ran to 
Harry's assistance. Just as he reached the melee 
one of the Yankees pierced Hatcher with a bay- 
onet, and the next instant Billy Brent struck the 
Yankee with his sabre. Brent, believing Hatcher 
had been killed, determined to kill his man. The 
other Yankees fell back so that Brent and his 
man had it out. Brent having ** the bulge," left 
the Yankee for dead on the field. Harry Hatcher 
said Billy Brent saved his life, and that he was 
always hunting the fight and was the ** bravest 
of the brave.*' Billy Brent said this was the 
bravest act he had witnessed during the war, 
when Hatcher could have ridden off, but instead 
charged five of the enemy, single handed, without 
knowing there was any assistance at hand.^ 

^ Friends of the writer, to whom both related the incident. 



The Centaur of the South 99 

Ashby, taking his dead and wounded with him, 
returned in the direction of Front Royal, where 
another brilliant charge was made by the Sixth 
Virginia Cavalry, under the eye and by the direc- 
tion of General Jackson himself. The quotation 
on this charge is made from his official report. 

** Delayed by the difficulties at the bridge over 
the North Fork, which the Federals had made 
an effort to burn. Colonel Flournoy pushed on 
with Companies A, B, E, and K of the Sixth 
Virginia Cavalry, and came up with a body of 
the enemy near Cedarville, about five miles from 
Front Royal. This Federal force consisted of 
two companies of cavalry, two pieces of artillery, 
the First Federal Regiment of Maryland Infantry, 
and two companies of Pennsylvania Infantry, 
which had been posted there to check our pursuit. 
Dashing into the midst of them. Captain Grimsley 
of Company B in the advance, the four com- 
panies drove the Federals from their position, who 
soon, however, reformed in an orchard on the 
right of the turnpike, where a second gallant and 
decisive charge being made upon them, the ene- 
my's cavalry was put to flight, the artillery aban- 
doned, and the infantry now thrown into great 

LOfC 



100 General Turner Ashby 

confusion surrendered themselves as prisoners of 
war. In this successful pursuit our loss was 
twenty-six killed and wounded. Among the killed 
was Captain Baxter of Company K, while gal- 
lantly leading his men in the charge." ^ The 
writer having friends and relatives in the Sixth 
and Seventh Virginia Cavalry, frequently quotes 
from them in this sketch. In this charge, described 
by General Jackson, near Front Royal, a mere 
boy charged with the foremost. He had en- 
tered the Confederate Army, Sixth Virginia 
Cavalry, Company A, the spring before, at the 
age of fifteen years. Colonel Fields, commanding 
the Sixth at that time, directed Captain R. H. 
Dulaney of Company A to send him home as 
being too small for the service, but the boy, J. W. 
Peake (Tip), begged to stay, and through the 
intercession of his captain he was allowed to do 
so.^ 

In this remarkable charge were so many gal- 
lant fellows who the writer knew, that he wishes 
he could mention more of them. He cannot omit, 



^O. R. Series i, Vol. 12, part i, page 702. 

2 Being too small to draw a man's saber, Captain Dulaney pre- 
sented him with a light one. 



The Centaur of the South 101 

however, a running reference to Bowls Armistead 
and W. B. Sowers of Company A of the Sixth, 
and Frank R. Carter and Virgil Weaver of Com- 
pany H. Besides, we like to mention the pri- 
vates. General Lee said that the heroes of the 
Lost Cause were found in the ranks. Bowls Armi- 
stead, a brother of General Lewis A. Armistead, 
was elected Lieutenant of Company A, and after 
the cool, bold Captain Bruce Gibson was cap- 
tured at Yellow Tavern, Lieutenant Armistead 
was acting captain until the close of the war. 
Later in the war, about Winchester, Lieutenant 
Armistead was knighted on the field of battle by 
a dashing general officer ^ for specially gallant con- 
duct. He dashed up to Armistead and struck 
him over the shoulder with his sword and said, 
" I make you a captain upon the field.'* W. B. 
Sowers, of the same company, in the charge at 
Front Royal, was a noted scout of intrepid cour- 
age and coolness. The writer has seen him with- 
in two hundred yards of a company of Federal 
cavalry, stop and count them while they were 
shooting at him. When urged to ride off he 

1 General W. H. Payne of the cavalry. 



102 General Turner Ashby 

would smile and reply, " I want to know their 
number.*' This occurred in the streets of Upper- 
ville. Two more fighting men of the Sixth Vir- 
ginia, well known to the writer, were Frank R. 
Carter and Virgil Weaver, ever ready for the 
fray. Weaver became Captain of Company H, 
and as he entered the battle of Spotsylvania, said 
to his friend Carter, " Ride with me, I will be 
killed today; I feel it." This presentiment was 
fulfilled. Captain Weaver was mortally wounded 
and died in a few hours. His dying request was 
that Carter be made captain of his company. 
Captain R. H. Dulaney of Company A of the 
Sixth Virginia, commanding his company in the 
fight at Front Royal, after the death of Ashby, 
was first made Lieutenant-Colonel of the Seventh, 
and later Colonel. He was badly shot several 
times, and was a bold fighter, commanding that 
intrepid regiment. Ashby at Buckton Station and 
Flournoy at Front Royal waked Banks up from 
his slumber behind his fortifications at Strasburg. 
Front Royal had bold riders with Ashby and gal- 
lant sons in the Warren Rifles of the splendid 
Seventeenth Virginia Infantry of Picket's Division. 



The Centaur of the South 103 

Ashby*s cordon of pickets had completely fool- 
ed Banks again, as when he " lost *' Jackson at 
Harrisonburg, he had now as suddenly found 
him. 



Chapter IX. 
BANKS' RETREAT— WINCHESTER. 

General Banks, realizing there v/as ** something 
doing," began a first-class sprinter before Ashby's 
Horse, Chew's Battery, and Dick Taylor's Louisi- 
anians. The pell mell of that foot race would 
defy the pen of "Bull Run Russell" at first Manas- 
sas. At Middletown Ashby struck the main part 
of the flying cavalry, v/agons, etc. Here also 
Ashby dashed ahead of his men on his black 
charger, and wheeling in the midst of the enemy 
calling on them to surrender, which they did in 
scores. This is the testimony of participants who 
were eye witnesses. Near here, before the re- 
treat became general, Ashby directed Chew to 
take his guns and charge abreast with the cavalry. 
Let's hear Colonel Chew on this novelty in war, 
inaugurated by an untrained soldier: 

** When Jackson moved down the Luray Val- 
ley and reached Cedarville he directed Ashby to 
move on Middletown. Funston was sent on with 
the bulk of the cavalry he had with him to New- 
105 



106 General Turner Ashby 

town to intercept the retreating forces of the 
enemy. Ashby marched rapidly toward Middle- 
town with a small body of cavalry and two guns 
of Chew's, and two guns of Proague's Battery 
(Rockbridge), followed at a distance by the in- 
fantry, and ordering the men to follow him as 
swiftly as possible he charged the enemy with 
the guns, the cavalry, artillery and all moving 
together. We unlimbered within a few hundred 
feet of the Federal troops. Ashby with his men 
charged up to the stone fence with the cavalry 
and emptied their pistols into the retreating 
columns. The same day near Christman's house 
he did the same thing, charging the enemy with 
forty or fifty cavalry and Chew's Battery. This 
manoeuver of charging with the horse artillery 
was often employed afterward, but was first in- 
augurated by Ashby in his campaign of 1862." 
Singular, that this country gentleman of Vir- 
ginia gives to the world this new idea of de- 
struction ahead of the West Pointers. Singular, 
too, that they should adopt it as most effective, 
and yet call Ashby only a partisan officer. Gen- 
eral Jackson halting a short while at Middletown, 
made his disposition of the infantry to guard him- 



The Centaur of the South ]07 

self against any force of the enemy that might 
have been left behind him. Finding nothing to 
apprehend from this quarter, he proceeded to- 
wards Winchester and formed a complete connec- 
tion with Ewell near that place, to complete the 
destruction or panic of Banks. Ashby, with 
Chew*s Battery, pressing the main body of the 
enemy on the turnpike, found they had unlim- 
bered some guns at Newtown, and checked for 
the moment the southern advance. Chew's guns 
were placed in position, when he had a hot duel 
with those of the enemy. As these were pro- 
tected by their sharpshooters, Proague's Battery 
re-enforced Chew's. Ashby seeing his men suf- 
fering from the fire of the sharpshooters, ordered 
his artillery to stop firing, and placing himself 
at the head of his cavalry, charged with the fury 
of the tempest, for quick work was required, and 
dispersed the sharpshooters. The horse artillery 
and cavalry swept the enemy like a feather blown 
in a storm past Kernstown to the environs of 
Winchester. Then darkness fell upon the red 
carnival of death, shielding Banks from the Eagle 
of ** The Crags." General Ewell, converging on 
Winchester from the Front Royal road, formed 



108 General Turner Ashby 

his line of battle on both sides of the road, con- 
necting his left with Jackson's right, with the Sixth 
and Second Virginia Cavalry under General 
George H. Stuart. Half of Ashby 's cavalry had 
been sent, as we have seen, to Generals Jackson 
and Edward Johnston, where they repulsed Mil- 
roy at McDowell, and had been kept detached 
as guards and pickets at various points ever since. 
Ashby and the remainder of his cavalry were 
under spur, masking the McDowell movement 
from Banks at Strasburg. With the two previous 
days fighting and marching at Buckton Station 
and Middletown, many casualties occurred to 
man and horse, so that after the night of the 
twenty-fourth of May there could not in the na- 
ture of things have been many of his men fit for 
duty on the twenty-fifth, the morning of the battle 
of Winchester. The charge against Ashby's men 
is, that they ** looted " the captured stores, and 
against him, that, on the morning of the twenty- 
fifth, he struck out on an " independent enter- 
prise." The charges are first made by Dr. Dab- 
ney, and followed by Cooke and Henderson. 
The living witnesses will be put upon the stand 
first. Colonel Chew, speaking of this independ- 



The Centaur of the South 109 

ent movement ** at the battle of Winchester, a 
statement made by Dabney and followed by other 
historians, including Henderson," says: ** I know 
that on that occasion Ashby was with the army 
immediately in front of Winchester, and when we 
were in pursuit of Banks on the Martinsburg 
road, was in our front dashing on the enemy with 
a small force, probably forty or fifty cavalrymen. 
He did not have a large force of cavalry with 
him on this expedition. Funston had several hun- 
dred men who had become scattered, and the 
bulk of Ashby *s cavalry were picketed from 
Franklin to the country east of the Blue Ridge 
Mountains." 

Major Carter in his letter, made a part of this 
sketch, says, " that at Middletown his men 
* stopped and went to looting ' has no sort of 
foundation. In fact I was in position to know 
all that transpired, and certainly saw nothing of 
the sort." 

Dr. N. G. West, surgeon on Ashby 's staff, in 
his letter, says he never heard of Ashby's men loot- 
ing on Banks' retreat. 

We quote now from one of Ashby's splendid 
fighting privates on the looting and the independ- 



1 1 General Turner Ashby 

ent enterprise, J. P. West: ** There is not a word 
of truth in either charge.'* Another gallant pri- 
vate, Abner Rector, says: "It is a slander and 
no truth in either statement.** Dr. Settle, of Ash- 
by's staff, says, that he never heard of the charge. 
Much more of the same testimony could be sup- 
plied, as the writer never saw one of Ashby *s 
officers or men who did not deny both charges in- 
dignantly. Now, let*s put General Jackson on 
the stand. After reflecting upon the conduct of 
the cavalry and the infantry under Colonel Ash- 
by*s command, in the "running fight,** he says: 
** That gallant officer had to discontinue further 
pursuit.** General Jackson, before he closes this 
report, takes ** everies ** on his previous statement, 
evidently made to him by some one else, and 
states: " While I have had to speak of some of 
our troops in disparaging terms, yet it is my grati- 
fying privilege to say of the main body of the army 
that its officers and men acted in a manner worthy 
of the great cause for which they were contend- 
ing, and to add that, so far as my knowledge ex- 
tends, the battle of Winchester was, on our part, 
a battle without a straggler.** ^ This proves that 



1 O. R. Series i, Vol. 12, part i, page 709. 



The Centaur of the South 1 1 1 

somebody else had so reported to him, but that 
he was not willing to have his report say he was 
a witness of it. Further, this same report disproves 
Ashby's independent enterprise, first stated by 
Dabney and followed by Henderson and Cooke. 
General Jackson says: ** Upon inquiring of Gen- 
eral Ashby, I asked him why he was not where I 
desired him at the close of the engagement. He 
stated that he had moved to the enemy's left for 
the purpose of cutting off a portion of his force." ^ 
This was satisfactory to General Jackson, as 
his next sentence relates to General George H. 
Steuart. If General Jackson was satisfied with 
General Ashby's movements on that occasion, 
why should Dr. Dabney criticise his action as an 
** independent enterprise," and not be satisfied, 
too? Nobody knew better than General Jack- 
son that Ashby*s flank movement on a fleeing 
army was correct. Why, if Ashby was not sat- 
isfactory to Jackson, was it that only two days 
afterwards in Winchester, on the twenty-seventh 
of May, 1862, he had Captain Sandy Pendle- 
ton," his aid then, afterwards his Adjutant- 



iQ. R. Series i, Vol. 12, part i, page 707. 
2 Averitt, page 206. 



] 1 2 General Turner Ashby 

General, hand Ashby his commission of Brigadier- 
General, and at the same time caution him to be 
less reckless of his life? 

In this instance of over zealous friendship of 
Dr. Dabney for General Jackson, the old adage 
is illustrated, ** Save me from my friends and I 
will take care of my enemies.'* There is no other 
way to view this matter without placing General 
Jackson in the peculiar position of condemning his 
cavalry chief one day and promoting him the next. 
This proposition is too preposterous for any man 
living to believe. As we leave these ridiculous 
charges absolutely refuted by Ashby's and Jack- 
son's best officers and men, with General Jackson 
himself disproving one charge and casting doubt 
on the other, by stating he did not witness it, the 
writer says to the reader if he still entertains doubts, 
he believes in the ** stuff that dreams are made of." 

So much has been said about Ashby and his 
command we will now turn to General George 
H. Steuart's command of the Sixth and Second 
Virginia Cavalry, and see what General Jackson 
says about him at this time : 

***** The Second and Sixth Virginia 
Regiments of Cavalry were under the command of 



The Centaur of the South 1 1 3 

Brigadier-General George H. Steuart of Ewell's 
command. After the pursuit had been continued 
some distance beyond town (Winchester) and 
seeing nothing of the cavalry/ I dispatched my 
aide-de-camp. Lieutenant Pendleton, to General 
Steuart with an order * to move as rapidly as pos- 
sible and join me on the Martinsburg turnpike, 
and carry on the pursuit of the enemy with vigor.' 
His reply was that he was under command of 
General Ewell and the order must come through 
him. Such conduct and consequent delay has 
induced me to require of Lieutenant (now Major) 
Pendleton a full statement of the case, which is 
forwarded herewith." * * * 

Major Pendleton's endorsement is as follows: 

(Endorsement) 

** I found the cavalry some two and a half 
miles from Winchester on the Berrjrville road with 
the men dismounted and the horses grazing quietly 
in a clover field. Not seeing General Steuart, I 
gave the order direct to the Colonels of the regi- 
ments to mount and go rapidly forward to join 



1 O. R. Series i, Vol. 12, part i, page 706. 



1 1 4 General Turner Ashby 

General Jackson on the Martinsburg road. Col- 
onel Flournoy of the Sixth Virginia Cavalry, the 
senior colonel, requested me to ride on and over- 
take General Steuart and communicate the order 
to him, as he had directed him to await him there. 
Going some half a mile further, I overtook General 
Stuart and directed him by General Jackson's 
order to move as rapidly as possible to join him 
on the Martinsburg turnpike and carry on the 
pursuit of the enemy with vigor. He replied that 
he was under the command of General Ewell and 
the order must come through him. I answered 
that the order from General Jackson for him to 
join him (General Jackson) was peremptory and 
immediate, and that I would go forward and in- 
form General Ewell that the cavalry was sent off. 
I left him and went on some two miles and com- 
municated with General Ewell, who seemed sur- 
prised that General Steuart had not gone immedi- 
ately upon receipt of the order. Returning about 
a mile I found that instead of taking the cavalry. 
General Steuart had ridden slowly after me to- 
wards General Ewell. I told him I had seen 
General Ewell and brought the order from him 
for the cavalry to go to General Jackson. This 



The Centaur of the South 1 1 5 

satisfied him. He rode back to his command, 
had the men mounted and formed and moved 
off towards Stephenson's depot. 
** Respectfully, 

"A. S. Pendleton, 
" Maj. and A. A. General." ^ 

General Steuart was from Maryland, and Gen- 
eral Jackson says in his report he was temporarily 
in command of cavalry. A little later we will 
see why he was put back in the infantry. After 
Steuart arrived at Bunker Hill, where he found 
General Ashby in pursuit of the enemy, they fol- 
lowed him on to Martinsburg and thence on to 
the Potomac. It is not germane to enter into the 
infantry battle of Winchester. It was a ** contin- 
uous " fight, as General Jackson reports: ** The 
advance continuing to move on until morning." 
* * * Generals Ewell, Taylor, Winder, Trim- 
ble, all made spirited attacks, and Banks retreated 
through Winchester to and across the Potomac. 



iQ. R. Series i, Vol. 12, part 1, pages 709-10. 



Chapter X. 

JACKSON'S RETREAT. 

Immediately after the capture of Winchester, 
General Jackson ordered divine service held for 
his army. Quaint genius of war, from battle to 
his knees and from his knees to battle. Ashby, 
too, followed the Divine Cross as he did the 
Southern cross. The one he worshiped like a 
knight where the guns flashed, the other in the 
recess of his closet. General Jackson was not 
satisfied with defeating General Banks and driv- 
ing him across the Potomac. He wished to cap- 
ture or destroy his whole army. This has never 
been done in an open country, where the oppos- 
ing forces are about equal. To accomplish such 
results there must be a complete investment of a 
besieged place or a large reserve of fresh troops 
in the open field operations. Ashby's cavalry 
could have done no more than they did, fought 
and worn out as they were. The infantry did all 
that foot cavalry could do, foot-sore and shot out 
as they were. There is no necessity for the his- 
117 



1 1 8 General Turner Ashby 

torians to seek a scapegoat in this running and 
continuous fight. It was splendidly done, and 
accomplished all that General Lee expected. 
The only delay that was avoidable was caused 
by General George H. Steuart's waiting, as we 
have seen, for his orders to come through General 
Ewell. This was for a few hours, and we see 
from Jackson's report that, after he started, he 
gave a good account of himself, with the Second 
and Sixth Virginia Cavalry, on the Martinsburg 
road to the Potomac. Military men claim that 
no battle of proportions was ever executed as 
planned. In other words, that strategy and tactics 
rarely ever coincide. Mr. Davis, the great and 
lofty President of the Confederacy, in his " Rise 
and Fall of the Confederacy," says the battle of 
Shiloh was executed as planned by General Al- 
bert Sidney Johnston up to the moment of his 
death, and if the writer's memory is not at fault, 
he says this is the only battle of which he has 
cognizance where this can be said. General Lee, 
as we have seen, authorized General Jackson to 
make his campaign down the valley and drive 
Banks to the Potomac, ** and threaten that line." 
At the same time he notified the Secretary of War 



The Centaur of the South I 1 9 

that ^ General Jackson was a good soldier, and 
he expected him to succeed. It was after Jack- 
son had executed this brilliant movement, after 
the whole valley campaign, that Jackson said of 
Lee: ** He is a phenomenon, he is the only man 
I would follow blindfold.'* Later at Chancellors- 
ville, in regret for Jackson's fall, Lee said, ** I have 
lost my right arm." Jackson now completed the 
instructions of Lee and the strategy of both, by 
sending General Winder with the infantry, sup- 
ported by Ewell's reserve, towards Charlestown, 
and driving back the Federals to Halltown. Gen- 
eral Steuart, with Cols. Munford and Flournoy, 
threatened the enemy on to Harper's Ferry. In 
the meantime Shields was marching ^ from Fred- 
ericksburg, Va., on Jackson's right, and Fremont 
from the South Branch on his left, with the view 
of concentrating the two forces in his rear, cutting 
off his retreat up the valley. If this could be ac- 
complished by the Federal commanders, Jackson 
could render no assistance in the defense of Rich- 
mond before McClellan, and would himself be 
" bagged." 



^ O. R. Valley Campaign, 1862. 

* O. R. Serfes i, Vol. 12, part i, page 707. 



]20 General Turner Ashby 

These operations will explain why this retreat 
of Jackson's was pressed much harder than his 
first retreat after the battle of Kernstown. This 
compelled General Jackson to call in his troops 
to Winchester, General Winder being farthest off 
bringing up the rear. Ashby, now promoted to 
the rank of Brigadier-General by General Jack- 
son, arrived in Winchester on the thirtieth day of 
May, 1862, and was directed to take the Front 
Royal road, to watch and delay Shields. This 
was the last time that Ashby would ever look up- 
on the "dear familiar faces" of that devoted town, 
which for three years became a *' bastion fringed 
with fire." Her brave sons were equalled by her 
noble daughters. Here, filling a twin sepulchre, 
the Centaur and his brother ** sleep their glorious 
manhood away " in ground enchanted by their 
deeds of heroic chivalry. Another division of the 
Federal army which went to the valley to bag 
Jackson, as they said, was ** Blinker's Dutch," as 
they were universally called. They were the most 
despicable set of ruffians that ever plundered a 
civilized people or disgraced the uniform of any 
army. A parallel can only be found in the march 
of the Goths and Vandals during the waning 



The Centaur of the South 1 2 1 

period of the Roman empire. This division, or 
part of it, passed through Upperville, en route for 
the valley to ** bag Jackson.** Their only instinct 
was to pillage from non-combatants and their 
highest virtue was cowardice in the presence of 
the enemy. They could speak nothing but 
Dutch and obeyed orders only by the whack of 
the officers* swords. They overran the grounds 
and houses like a swarm of locusts, stealing every 
chicken and pig and, thrusting their hands in 
the jars of soft soap, called out hooney! hooney! 
A northern correspondent on this trip with the 
Federal army thus refers in part to Blinker*s Divi- 
sion: * * * "With all respect to General 
Blinker himself, whom I highly esteem as a Ger- 
man and a gentleman, it comprises as lawless a 
set as ever pillaged hen roofs or robbed dairy maids 
of milk and butter. I saw a company of them 
gutting the cellar of a house, carrying off every- 
thing eatable and drinkable, * * * and their 
only reply was * nix furstay.* '* ^ 

In Upperville when they were asked, " Why 
are j^ou stealing the chickens?'* they answered, 
** To bag Jackson.** Why do you eat soft soap? 

^ Cooke, page 157. 



122 General Turner Ashby 

Answer, ** Hooney." " Why do you kill the 
pigs?'* Answer, ** Nix furstay.*' " Why do you 
rummage the bureau drawers?** Answer, ** To 
bag Jackson.** ** To bag Jackson ** was their 
shibboleth. The only English they knew was 
comprised in three words: "Bag Jackson,** and 
** Honey,** which they pronounced " hooney.** ^ 
How completely they fooled the hard fighter. 
General Shields, will be seen in his reference here 
quoted :***** The ten thousand Germans on 
his rear (Jackson*s) who hang on like bull dogs.** ^ 
It will soon be discovered after Ashby and Gen- 
eral Dick Taylor, that General E. V. Sumner of 
the Federal Army had a more just conception of 
the German bull dogs than General Shields. 

** Warrenton Junction, 

"March 31, 1862, P.M. 
"General S. Williams: 

" I would respectfully ask to be informed what 
I am to understand by the withdrawal of the two 
principal divisions from my corps and leaving me 



1 Writer eye witness and many others. 

2 0. R. Series i, Vol. 12, part 3, page 352. 



The Centaur of the South 123 

the German Division only, which in my opinion 
is the least effective division in the whole army.^ 

** E. V. Sumner, 
" Brigadier-General U. S. Army, 

** Commanding 2nd Corps.** 

Ashby at Cedar Creek, with only a part of his 
command, held these German bull dogs, then un- 
der Fremont, to bag Jackson, a whole day, be- 
fore they could pluck up courage enough to strike 
Jackson while he was waiting for Winder with 
the Stonewall Brigade to come up. The next 
day they made a feeble attack. General Taylor 
under General Ewell, supporting Ashby, says of 
these German bull dogs:^ 

** Sheep would have made as much resistance 
as we met. Men decamped without firing and 
threw down their arms and surrendered. Our 
whole skirmish line was advancing briskly. I 
sought Ewell and reported we had a fine game 
before us and the temptation to play it was great, 
but Jackson's orders were imperative and wise. 
He had his stores to save. Shields to guard against. 



10. R. 

2 Destruction and Reconstruction. 



124 General Turner Ashby 

Lee's grand strategy to promote, he could not 
waste time on chasing Fremont." 

Ewell and Ashby, having been recalled from 
chasing the German bull dogs, Jackson retreated 
on up the valley with Ashby and Chew's bat- 
tery, disputing from the hill tops every step of 
the way. The failure of Shields to appear at 
Strasburg looked as if he were racing up the Lu- 
ray Valley to cut off Jackson at New Market. 
This was a matter of vital importance to Jack- 
son, and the only way to equal or overcome it 
was race for race with Shields, with the Massa- 
nutton Mountain between them. This retreat 
on Jackson's part, and advance on Fremont's and 
Shields', was compelled to be a hot one for either 
side to gain its objective. Ashby, holding Cedar 
Creek the first day, keeping Fremont from com- 
ing into the valley turnpike, and taking position 
before Jackson's infantry arrived, was the first 
point gained by Jackson. The bridges over 
Massanutton Mountain must be destroyed, to de- 
lay Shields. This he does, the White House 
and Columbia on the south branch of the Shenan- 
doah. Later the bridge at Conrad's store is also 
destroyed. This heavy work done. Shields is 



The Centaur of the South 125 

balked and delayed. Quoting again from Colonel 
Chew's letter at this time, he says: "When it 
was necessary to delay the enemy, who were 
pressing after Jackson in his retreat from Win- 
chester where he had defeated Banks he displayed 
great skill and stubbornness in fighting from every 
hill top. He would form a skirmish line and open 
upon them with artillery, compel them to halt and 
form line of battle, and when their superior forces 
drew dangerously near to his men he would skill- 
fully withdraw and form on the next hill. I have 
seen General Ashby under fire in fully a hundred 
battles and skirmishes, and he always appeared to 
me to be absolutely without consciousness of dan- 
ger, cool and self-possessed and ever alert, and 
quick as lightning to take advantage of any mis- 
take of the enemy. He was always vigilant and 
remarkabl}^ sagacious in discovering the erroneous 
movement on the part of the enemy. He was with 
our guns when we were fighting from hill to hill. 
Upon several occasions I suggested to him we 
were lavish in the expenditure of our ammunition, 
but he said he believed in firing at the enemy 
whenever they showed their heads. He was 
reckless in the exposure of his person, and when 



126 General Turner Ashby 

he was cautioned about this replied, that an offi- 
cer should always go to the front and take risks 
in order to keep his men up to the mark." 

Jackson was heavy laden with Commissary- 
General Banks' rich stores and supplies, wagons 
and prisoners, and his own wounded to care for. 
He had now come up with this impedimenta, and 
his retreat had to correspond to it; thus was pro- 
duced the necessity for heavy and skilful rear- 
guard fighting of Ashby, graphically described by 
Colonel Chew, his chief of horse artillery. Jack- 
son had his plans well laid, but it took a bold and 
skillful soldier like Ashby to execute them. Each 
bridge must be burnt at the right time and not 
before. His picket lines extended for fifty miles 
on each side of the Massanutton Mountain, in- 
cluding the gaps. Shields must be watched night 
and day, and we have seen how Fremont had to 
be fought every hour. " Fortune smiles upon the 
bold suitor.'* Jackson had him in the leader of 
his horse, horse artillery, and infantry whenever 
occasion required, as Ashby had from the be- 
ginning of the war, as we have seen, commanded 
all these arms of the service. The history of the 
Southern army will fail to show that any other 



The Centanr of the South 127 

volunteer captain had command of all arms as 
did Ashby from the first day of the war. 

After Jackson had united his forces about 
Strasburg and falling back on Woodstock on the 
valley turnpike, Ashby and his men were relieved 
temporarily of the heavy rear-guard fighting. This 
rest was absolutely necessary for man and horse. 
General George H. Steuart was placed in com- 
mand of the rear guard with the Second and Sixth 
Virginia Cavalry, commanded by Colonels Mun- 
ford and Floumoy. 



Chapter XI. 

RETREAT CONTINUED. 

The enemy, pressing Jackson, as his only hope 
to delay him was to cause him to turn and fight 
with his infantry, made a very gallant charge 
soon after General Steuart was put in command 
of the rear guard. The two colonels commanding 
under General Steuart, as we have seen, were 
Flournoy and Munford, both gallant officers, 
commanding gallant men. Colonel Munford has 
this to say in his official report, of the enemy's 
charge on the rear guard: 

" The next morning (June 2nd) found us still 
covering the retreat. * * ^ My regiment was 
then thrown to the right and rear of Caskie's bat- 
tery, on the left of the road coming up the val- 
ley, one company acting on my flank. Here the 
enemy opened a battery and shelled us furiously, 
and I was ordered by General Steuart to move 
back out of range, and crossed with my com- 
mand on the other side of the turnpike to sup- 
129 



130 General Turner Ashby 

port a battery there in position, which would check 
the enemy while Caskie's battery was retiring. In 
executing the order, after we had gone but a few 
hundred yards, to my utter surprise, I saw the 
battery and cavalry teeming together down the 
road pell mell, and the Yankees after them at 
full speed. The head of my column was under 
a hill, and as we came out of the woods a party 
of the 42nd Virginia Infantry, mistaking us for 
the Yankees, fired into my advance squadron, 
causing a stampede, wounding several. The 
Yankees passing on my rear captured eight men. 
Such management I never saw before. Had the 
batteries retired by echelon, and the cavalry in 
the same way, we could have held our position or 
driven back their cavalry by a counter charge from 
ours, but a retreat was ordered, and a disgraceful 
stampede ensued. Mortified and annoyed at such 
management. Colonel Flournoy of the Sixth ac- 
companied me to see General Ewell, who was 
kind enough to intercede with General Jackson 
and have us at once transferred to General Ashby's 
command. Here the gallant Ashby succeeded in 
rallying about fifty straggling infantry and poured 
a volley into the Yankee cavalry emptying many 



The Centaur of the South 131 

saddles and giving them a check, clearing the 
road for the rest of the day. Ashby*s cavalry, the 
Sixth and a portion of the Second, were all equally 
stampeded.'* ^ 

Ashby and his cavalry vv^ere not on duty at this 
time. This is also indicated by Colonel Munford 
in the beginning of his report by the use of 
the word ** us." They were only marching 
along, taking a much needed rest, and the 
charge into them was unexpected. General 
George H. Steuart had the rear guard, with two 
crack regiments; yet they let the charging squad- 
ron of the enemy pass clear over them to the 
straggling infantry. There must be a reason for 
these regiments becoming so stampeded. Colonel 
Munford gives it correctly as ** mismanagement." 
General Steuart was transferred from the cavalry 
at once, and was placed in command of infantry. 
General Jackson states he was only temporarily 
in charge of the cavalry. Ashby of course was 
put in command of the rear guard immediately, 
with the Second and Sixth attached, and made 
a part of his command at the request of Colonels 
Munford and Flournoy. Such mishaps as this 



1 O. R. Series i, Vol. 12, part i, page 73: 



132 General Turner Ashby 

never occurred with Ashby. All effects have 
causes, whether known or not. In war the main 
factor is the " leader " of men. Napoleon dwells 
much on this proposition, that it is the commander 
who makes the army. The writer never realized 
the truth of this idea so fully, until he had studied 
the campaigns of Lee, Jackson, and Ashby. The 
case under discussion illustrates Napoleon's propo- 
sition perfectly, though of course in a meagre man- 
ner. The Sixth Virginia only about a week be- 
fore had whipped three or four times their own 
number, and the enemy fought with cavalry, in- 
fantry, and artillery. So the kernel of the matter 
for Jackson's success is still more clearly proven, 
that the leader, Ashby, was the actor, around 
and in whom centered the power to fulfill Jack- 
son's plans. With Ashby in command, the foot- 
sore infantry took the rout step, and marched 
at will. With Ashby absent for a few hours, the 
rear guard is broken pell mell, and the infantry 
must close ranks and do battle. This even has to 
be done by the quick eye and command of Ashby. 
These were the days when the true hero made 
war glorious. It was not like the murder and 
sudden death of the late Japanese-Russian con- 




MAJOR J. W. CARTER 



The Centaur of the South 133 

flict. That was smokeless science applied by the 
hand of fatalism without a gleam of chivalry to 
brighten the gloom. It was not like the opera 
play, running for the summer months of ] 898, and 
entitled, ** Benevolent Assimilation in Cuba." 
That side performance produced more pinch- 
beck heroes in a few months than the Civil War 
did real heroes in four years, with almost three 
million and a half of soldiers engaged. Of course 
that war developed some heroic spirits, as all 
wars do: Admirals Dewey, Schley, Captain 
Clark, Hobson and his men, and a few others of 
the Navy; Fighting Joe, General Wheeler, and a 
few others of the Army unrecognized. But from 
1 86 1 -5 the South had grown a crop of men never 
equalled by herself before or since, and never 
equalled by any other people. It was the reflex 
action of her great civilization. Riding now with 
Ashby on the milk white horse he seems all but 
resistless, as from flash of pistol and roar of gun 
he teaches Fremont the lesson of caution. Again 
Jackson, with his slow-moving, heavy load of 
commissaries, wagons, and prisoners, captured 
from Banks, must not be stopped. From every 
stream, every fence, every hill and bend of the 



134 General Turner Ashby 

road the guns belched, the squadrons clashed in 
responsive uproar like the angry thunder of moun- 
tain torrents upon the summer air. Jackson is ap- 
proaching a vital point on his retreat. He has the 
Mount Jackson bridge to cross, and his progress 
grows slower as his impedimenta and troops are 
more massed to make the passage. It is doubt- 
ful if Jackson, without the large stores and sup- 
plies taken from Banks on his advance to and at 
Winchester, could have made this retreat, pressed 
by Fremont as he was, from Cedar Creek suc- 
cessfully. The captured stores furnished his army 
with every possible need and even with luxuries. 
Without these provisions it would have been com- 
pelled to forage, and therefore greatly delayed. 
As it was, with the utmost Ashby could do, Jack- 
son only arrived in time to make his dispositions 
for Shields at Port Republic, and for Fremont at 
Cross Keys. The Valley of Virginia had been 
overrun by friend and foe, at this early stage of 
the struggle, from McDowell to Harper's Ferry. 
Her bosom was already hoof-beaten and bleeding, 
but she held a leal heart, ready for any fate. 
Later, in the scourge of Sheridan, though she 
passed under the rod, she bore her brow like a 



The Centaur of the South 135 

royal queen, and wept only because ** her chil- 
dren were not." In this besom of ruin, that swept 
her life, no mark was upon the lintel, as a saving 
grace from death. All the rich life, not ruthlessly 
snatched from her, she immolated upon the altar 
of her love, the Southern Cause. 

** A land without ruins is a land without mem- 
ories. A land without memories is a land with- 
out history. * * * Crowns of roses fade, crowns 
of thorns endure. Calvaries and crucifixions take 
deepest hold of humanity. The triumphs of 
might are transient. They pass and are forgot- 
ten. The sufferings of right are graven deepest 
on the chronicles of nations." 

The war of 1861-5 is the most momentous 
event of modern history, notwithstanding the 
Japanese-Russian killing. The pension roll of the 
government is larger many times than that of any 
other people or kingdom of the world. This 
feature, as one result of the vv^ar, is well illustrated 
by an anecdote told the writer some years ago 
by a friend in Washington City. This gentleman 
was in the Federal Army and bears an honorable 
wound for gallant service. He said a foreigner, 
visiting Washington, after looking over the various 



136 General Turner Ashby 

show-buildings and places, including the parks and 
circles, asked, ** But where are the statues of your 
great generals?" The gentleman being question- 
ed replied that he did not understand him. The 
foreigner said, ** I mean Lee, Jackson, and the 
other great leaders.** ** Oh,*' the American re- 
plied, ** I will show you their monument.** After 
walking some distance they reached Judiciary 
Square. ** There," said the American, ** is their 
monument, the * Pension Bureau.* '* If the reader 
asks why these reflections are injected here, the 
answer is easy. All the progressive diseases that 
afflict the country today have grown directly or 
indirectly out of the war. The centralization of 
Federal power, the centralization of the dollar, 
both private and corporate; trusts, the industrial 
offspring bred from the highest tariff ever known, 
the lowering of the standard of morals, public and 
private, and, last but not least, the race question, 
sprung from the reconstruction Acts of Congress. 
What was to be expected after these acts but the 
deluge? The deluge of destruction, and it is the 
deluge still, not alone affecting the South, but 
more and more, year by year, the whole country. 
What is the use of talking about the Constitution, 



The Centaur of the South 137 

when we govern with one hand colonies with- 
out representation like a kingdom; and with the 
other, turn the pages of the Constitution from 
which to quote, like Satan from the Bible, to deny 
and belittle? If the question is, "What is the 
Constitution between friends," what possible 
chance has it with its enemies? 



Chapter XII. 

RETREAT CONTINUED. 

After Ashby had repulsed the charge of the 
Federal cavalry on the infantry, with the infantry, 
wherever the men could see him they cheered 
him until out of sight. As he rides along the out- 
posts on the white stallion near New Market, 
commanding all the cavalry, let's observe him 
closely since he is marked so soon for glory and for 
death. Complexion, dark; height, about five feet 
ten inches ; weight, about a hundred and forty-five 
pounds, with plume, saber and sash. As you look 
at the man and steed you realize that you behold 
the most perfect horsemanship that nature and art 
create. You also see that the noble rider and 
horse are friends. A little more than a year gone 
he was a volunteer soldier, without rank. He has 
cut from the " grim visaged ** front of war three 
stars, the rank of a general officer, but you do not 
see them. Modest, yes; gentle, yes; you see the 
man first, then the soldier. How is he different 
from all the others? In the roar of the guns and 
139 



140 General Turner Ashby 

the hiss of the bullets, your question is answered: 
Ashby *s genius is thought in action! Colonel 
R. B. Macy, Chief of Staff of Cavalry, with 
General Fremont, at this time says of Ashby: 
** I have been in advance with my regiment most 
of the time from Strasburg, and the horse of Gen- 
eral Ashby is a familiar object to us all, as he 
daily superintends the movements of Jackson's rear 
guard. As we see him on the outposts he affords 
an excellent mark for our flying artillery, as he is 
described upon the hill in advance of us, seem- 
ingly never out of sight or absent from his post of 
duty. He is always the last man to move on, 
after satisfying himself as to the movements of our 
forces. Many and many a time on this advance 
I have seen the rifled field piece brought to bear 
upon him, and the solid shot go shrieking after 
him, striking within a few feet of him, throwing 
up the clouds of dust over him, or else go sing- 
ing over his head, dealing destruction to his men 
behind him.*' ^ 

Pity it is that he did not bear a charmed life a 
little longer. In a war like ours it was impossible 
that a man like Ashby could live. It is strange 

1 Averitt, 214. 



The Centaur of the South 141 

that he was not killed earlier. General Shields 
reports on this campaign: ***** He (Jack- 
son) crosses and burns the bridges after him. 

Ashby has infernal activity and ingenuity in this 

♦♦ 1 
way. 

General Shields was an officer of ability and 
a hard fighter, and having suffered so much in 
the Luray Valley from Ashby *s ** ingenuity and 
infernal activity," his Irish broke out into infernal 
to relieve his indignation. General Fremont is so 
impressed with Ashby's rear guard defense that 
he exclaims :***** General Ashby, who up 
to this time (his death) had covered their retreat 
with admirable audacity and skill.'* ^ 

In another chapter it will be shown what the 
admirable audacity and skill meant not only to 
Fremont but to Jackson in completing his bril- 
liant coupe in pursuance of Lee's grand strategy. 
Shields was urging forward General Carroll, com- 
manding his advance brigade up to the Luray 
Valley to intercept Jackson at New Market by 
a pass in the Massanutton Mountain nearly oppo- 
site to New Market. Fremont was hotly pursuing 



iQ. R. Series i, Vol. 12, part 3, page 359. 
2 Ibid, Series i, Vol. 12, part i, page 18. 



142 General Turner Ashby 

Jackson's rear near Mount Jackson to hold him 
until Shields could reach New Market. If this 
could be accomplished Jackson would be ** be- 
tween the upper and nether mill stone.'* Ashby 
checkmated both the Federal commanders by his 
** infernal activity and ingenuity " with Shields, 
and his *' admirable audacity and skill " with 
Fremont. Ashby, as we have noticed, had de- 
stroyed the White House and Columbia bridges 
at the start of this retreat, so Shields was balked 
in the pursuit of his prey at New Market. He 
had also delayed the advance of Fremont, by 
burning the bridge near Mount Jackson, under a 
heavy fire at the risk of his life. The destruction 
of this bridge proved to be the crisis in Jackson's 
final operations. By reference to the report of 
Lieutenant-Colonel Joseph Karges, commanding 
the First New Jersey Cavalry, Colonel Sir Percy 
Wyndham's regiment, we see how long General 
Fremont was delayed in crossing the Shenandoah 
River, owing to the destruction of Mount Jack- 
son bridge. 

***** Two miles this side of Mount Jack- 
son the regiment received your orders to advance, 
the First Pennsylvania Cavalry leading the van, 



The Centaur of the South 143 

in order to save the bridge over the Shenandoah, 
which was on fire. We arrived just in time to 
behold the smoldering timbers of the bridge. * * * 
The bridge having been burned and the stream 
swollen by washout rains, we encamped on the 
banks waiting for the construction of a pontoon 
bridge, which, after the delay of forty-eight hours, 
was effected and the army crossed over on Thurs- 
day, June 5th.'* ^ 

This delay of two days is supported by Gen- 
eral Jackson's Official Report: 

" On the third, after my command had crossed 
the bridge over the Shenandoah near Mount Jack- 
son, General Ashby was ordered to destroy it, 
which he barely succeeded in accomplishing be- 
fore the Federal forces reached the opposite bank 
of the river. Here his horse was killed by the 
enemy, and he made a very narrow escape with 
his life." * * * 2 

In passing from this incident now we will 
only glance at the difficulty of performing the 
order and its consequences. This was a very 
difficult task to perform, owing to " heavy 



iQ. R. Series i, Vol. 12, part i, page 679. 
2 0. R. Series i, Vol. 12, part i, page 712. 



144 General Turner Ashby 

storms of rain '* the preceding days, and to 
the fact that Fremont had realized that Jack- 
son's forced marches meant to fight either himself 
or Shields in detail, or, passing through Brown's 
gap in the Blue Ridge Mountains to connect with 
Lee's right flank at Richmond. Either result 
would defeat the cherished plans at Washington, 
and give him a black eye, from which he knew 
he could not recover, and from which he did not 
recover. The game was eluding him, and the 
last chance was to save the bridge, but the auda- 
cious and skilful Ashby also knew Jackson's suc- 
cess depended upon the destruction of the bridge. 
He remained to the last, seeing that the fire had 
done its work so completely that Fremont must 
make a pontoon before he could cross with his 
army. The evidences on both sides of the Shen- 
andoah at the bridge told of the hot work about 
it. Here Ashby lost his matchless white horse. ^ 
A word about this noted horse, as the fame of 
rider and steed had been won together: 

** A ball had pierced his side, and the blood 



^ Presented to Ashby by Mr. James Henry Hathaway, of 
Fauquier County, Va. 



The Centaur of the South 145 

was gushing out at every pant. As he was led 
away along a line of a regiment under arms (in- 
fantry), an eye witness declares that he never had 
imagined so spirited and magnificent an animal. 
He was white as snow, says our authority, except 
where his side and legs were stained with his own 
blood. His mane and tail were long and flowing, 
his eye and action evinced distinctly the rage with 
which he regarded the injury he had received. 
He trod the earth with the grandeur of a wounded 
lion, and every soldier looked upon him with 
sympathy and admiration. He had saved his 
master at the cost of his own life. He almost 
seemed conscious of his own achievement, and 
only to regret death because his own injuries were 
unavenged.'* ^ 

Ashby is said to have caressed with a lingering 
touch and look his wounded friend, as he turned 
from him. Did fate cast her shadow three days 
ahead of time? If so, it was but for a moment, 
as his guns soon roared defiance across the river. 
It was two days before Fremont crossed the river, 
from the third to the fifth of June. He did not 



Cooke, pages 127-8 and note. 



146 General Turner Ashby 

come in contact with the Confederate rear guard 
that day, the 5th. The topography of the country 
was favorable to sudden onslaughts, and he 
seemed to know that the tiger's claws were ready 
to strike any moment. This was verified on the 
next day, as soon as the enemy showed their 
heads. General Jackson, during the delay of 
Fremont's force in crossing the Shenandoah, or- 
dered his prisoners, stores not needed, and his 
wounded sent on to Staunton out of reach of all 
accidents. 

Ashby, by his last ingenuity and activity, had 
given " Stonewall " just the time he needed to 
prepare his army for emergencies. Ashby, slowly 
falling back beyond Harrisonburg, halted for the 
night in a meadow near that town. No soldier 
knew better than he that the silence of the dying 
day portended the storm of the next. He had 
felt the pulse of Fremont so often, and it must 
be confessed at times very rudely, that he knew 
his respiration and metal. It is said that Ashby 
was restless this last night, while his men slept. 
Was he evolving his two most brilliant movements 
of the next day, or " did coming events cast their 



The Centaur of the South 147 

shadows before them?" We can never know, 
but we do know that the next day, Ashby was 
Ashby, equal to all emergencies, the dominant 
power behind Jackson, and rising superior to every 
demand, but death! 



Chapter XIII. 

LAST BIVOUAC— SIR PERCY WYND- 
HAM— BUCKTAILS. 

Ashby was not only the rear guard of Jack- 
son's army, but, with the Sixth and Second Vir- 
ginia Cavalry, was guarding and watching Shields' 
advance over the Massanutton Mountain in the 
Luray Valley, as he moved on Port Republic. 
Shields, from his report, had his army scattered 
for miles along that valley, notwithstanding Gen- 
eral McDowell, his commander, had cautioned 
him to keep closed up. The violation of this 
principle of war proved his destruction. Shields, 
however, was urging General Carroll, command- 
ing the Fourth Brigade in the advance, " that this 
was the chance of a lifetime, that the German 
bull dogs were on the heels of Jackson." But 
Carroll, a fighting officer, did not seem so certain 
of this, and did not attack until the eighth of 
June, when he was quickly and easily repulsed 
on the bridge at Port Republic. Fremont, since 
crossing the Shenandoah at Mount Jackson, grew 
149 



150 General Turner Ashby 

cautious. Fremont had also felt the pulse of 
Ashby, and therefore moved slowly. The signals 
waving on the Massanutton warned Ashby that 
Shields was rapidly advancing on Jackson at Port 
Republic. The morning of the sixth of June broke 
clear and beautiful after the storms of heavy rain 
the previous days. No approach of the enemy 
had disturbed, so far, the horse or horse artillery. 
In the meadow near Harrisonburg, Ashby's men 
were still lounging, v/ith horses grazing. Their 
chief, though, was mounted and alert, watching 
his videttes. He knew that his commander had 
not yet reached Port Republic, the point of safety 
between the two converging Federal columns. 
Jackson, after his force had arrived at Port Re- 
public, could, if the worst came to the worst, cross 
his army over the bridge there, then destroy it, 
cutting off Fremont. He could then take his 
choice either to strike Shields or pass through 
Brown's Gap in the Blue Ridge Mountains on to 
Richmond. The limitations of this campaign, 
and the instructions that compelled it to re- 
volve within a certain sphere must be borne 
in mind. This sphere is contained in the strategy 
of Lee: ** To threaten that line. Harper's Ferry," 



The Centaur of the South 1 5 1 

but, dominating all tactics, Jackson must hold the 
power to re-enforce Richmond. So General Jack- 
son was limited by Lee, as Ashby was by Jack- 
son. General Jackson could play the game of 
tactics as he pleased, but under no circumstances 
was he to endanger his power to answer the call 
from Richmond. Ashby could fight his rear guard 
to the muzzle of the enemy's guns, but must not 
call for infantry re-enforcements if it could be 
avoided; otherwise, he might defeat the plans of 
Jackson and therefore Lee's. How splendidly 
Jackson accomplished the great work committed 
to him all the world knows. How splendidly 
Ashby accomplished the great task committed to 
him the world does not know. We find, in read- 
ing General Jackson's official report, the reason 
why Ashby made his last desperate charge with 
infantry late in the afternoon of the sixth of June. 
General Jackson says: * * * ** The main body 
of my command had now reached the vicinity of 
Port Republic." 1 * * * '' General Ewell was 
some four miles distant. " * * * ^ 



1 O. R. Series i, Vol. 12, part i, page 712, 
20. R. Series i, Vol. 12, part i, page 712. 



152 General Turner Ashby 

The date of the sixth is fixed by General Jack- 
son, in referring to the death of General Ashby 
on the sixth, in the preceding clause, and by his 
expression in the extract quoted, ** had now reach- 
ed the vicinity,*' etc. The reason was that Jack- 
son had not yet arrived at Port Republic, the only 
position from which he could either act on the 
offensive or defensive, and still keep within the 
limitations of his imperative instructions: that is, 
fight or retreat to Richmond. Before going into 
the last engagements of Ashby we quote what 
Colonel Chew says of them : " The day of his 
death was probably the most brilliant of his life. 
He had routed Wyndham and his cavalry, and 
dashing forward in pursuit of the routed force, 
discovered that instead of retreating towards Har- 
risonburg he had turned towards the turnpike, and 
after reaching it had turned towards Staunton. 
General Ashby saw immediately that if the enemy 
at Harrisonburg could be checked an opportunity 
was offered for capturing this force. * * * He 
applied to the commander of the rear brigade to 
move to the hills facing Harrisonburg to protect 
this movement. This was declined, however, and 
a messenger sent to General Ewell, whose division 



The Centaur of the South 153 

was in the rear, he came promptly to the rear and, 
discovering that the movement vv^as necessary, at 
all events to protect his rear, promptly coincided 
with General Ashby, and ordered the infantry to 
report to Ashby. When he met General Ashby 
he complimented him upon his * brilliant exploit.' 
As Ashby rode along the lines he was received 
with vociferous cheers from the men. A delay 
had been caused by sending the messenger to 
General Ewell, and the enemy had gained the 
hill he desired to occupy. It was determined, 
however, to attack them." 

General Fremont advanced on Ashby on the 
sixth of June with Colonel Sir Percy Wyndham 
commanding the First New Jersey Cavalry. It 
had been bruited about for some time that Sir 
Percy intended to capture or bag Ashby, as 
Blinker's Dutch had bragged that they would bag 
Jackson. We will soon see that both threats 
ended in failure, and that Wyndham fought only 
enough to bag himself with sixty men and three 
or four officers. Ashby, watching his videttes 
this June morning saw a body of the enemy's 
cavalry advancing on them. He made his dis- 
positions so as to decoy the cavalry to advance 



1 54 General Turner Ashby 

on him, and at the same time ordering some of 
his horse to strike the enemy on the flank and 
gain their rear. Ashby, charging in front, and 
his flankers in rear, soon gobbled up the English- 
man and most of his squadron. It is said by those 
who saw the Englishman after he was captured 
that he became indignant when laughed at and 
called a Yankee. Sir Percy also flourished around 
in this locality without either harm to himself or 
to others. Colonel Mosby was after him, but 
General Ashby had taught him that *' discretion 
was the better part of valor." He was created a 
colonel at the start, and, as far as known, re- 
mained one to the end. The writer has felt pride 
and pleasure up to this point in writing this sketch 
of Ashby and his men, but the shifting scene 
changes in its rugged splendor. The actor for 
the first and last time falls upon the heart of the 
great valley, the stage of his glorious achievements. 
It has been forty-five years since then, yet some 
who read this sketch will find with the writer that 
it is hard to say ** good night, sweet prince, good 
night." Why is it that greatness, genius, ever 
lonely itself, reflects sadness, as the mist resembles 
the rain? After the capture of Wyndham, Fre- 



The Centaur of the South 155 

mont presses his infantry to the front. Ashby, see- 
ing this movement of the enemy, dispatched a 
courier to the commander of Ewell's rear brigade, 
who refused the assistance asked. General Ewell 
was then notified, who returned with the infantry, 
the 58th Virginia, Colonel Letcher, and the First 
Maryland, commanded by Colonel Bradley T. 
Johnston, afterwards promoted to General com- 
manding the Maryland line. Colonel Munford 
was placed in command of the cavalry, and di- 
rected to keep the horse artillery playing on the 
Federal cavalry on a hill in front. Ashby, with 
the infantry, intended to strike the enemy in 
flank; the Pennsylvania Bucktails and the 52nd 
Ohio. The Bucktails were commanded by 
the gallant and noble Colonel Kaine. The 
delay in receiving the infantry force had changed 
the attack as intended from a flank to a 
front attack near a wood land, with the fighting 
Bucktails protected by a fence. Ashby, always 
mounted, ordered up the 58th Virginia, a small 
regiment. Here a hot and stubborn fight ensued 
with Ashby everywhere animating his men. See- 
ing his men suffering under this heavy fire and 
making no headv/ay, he ordered the 58th to cease 



156 General Turner Ashby 

firing, and, putting himself at their head, directed 
a charge with the bayonet. His horse being kill- 
ed, and instantly recovering his feet, he gave his 
last ringing order for the cold steel, as a ball 
pierced his heart. The answer behind the cold 
steel was the Rebel yell of the 58th, as John- 
ston closed on the flank. Virginia and Maryland 
had swept the field, but amid the burning vespers 
of June, Turner Ashby fell upon " death's royal 
purple." 



Chapter XIV. 

JACKSON'S EULOGY— ASHBY NOT A 
PARTISAN— LEE'S DISPAJCH. 

The delay caused by the rough handling of 
Fremont's infantry advance by Ashby on the day 
of his death gave General Jackson another day, 
the seventh of June, to prepare for the coming 
conflict, vv^hich began on the eighth of June. Two 
days of this time grew out of the destruction of 
the Mount Jackson bridge, from the third to the 
fifth of June. The third day was the result of 
Ashby 's fight on the sixth. The fourth day, 
owing to that fight, resulted in Fremont's caution 
on the seventh. These four days, by the ** ad- 
mirable audacity and skill," says Fremont, the 
** infernal activity and ingenuity," says Shields, 
of Ashby, in the judgment of the writer and many 
others, gave Jackson at the last the power to suc- 
cessfully complete his brilliant combinations and 
immortalize the name of " Stonewall." Take the 
valley campaign alone : The first march down the 
valley, the fight at Kernstown, the retreat up the 
157 



158 General Turner Ashby 

valley, fighting every day, the twenty-eight days 
shelling of Banks about Edinburg, the advance on 
Milroy at McDowell, the advance in flank on 
Banks at Strasburg, "the running fight" from Mid- 
dletown to Winchester and on to the Potomac, 
the retreat from Winchester, as Shields and Fre- 
mont converged on the rear, the burning of the im- 
portant bridges — the White House, Columbia, 
and Mount Jackson, — the heavy rear guard fight- 
ing of shot and shell, in front of Fremont from 
Cedar Creek to the end, will give some idea of 
what Fremont and Shields meant in their refer- 
ences to Ashby. It will also give the reader 
some just grasp of the hard and great work Ashby 
accomplished. By the light of his guns the in- 
fantry bivouacked; their reveille was the clash of 
his charging squadrons. It is known how Jack- 
son first repulsed Fremont (the hard fighting Gen- 
eral Ewell commanding the engagement at Cross 
Keys on the eighth, and calling him over the bridge 
at Port Republic), burnt the bridge, advanced, 
met Shields, and whipped him in sound if not in 
sight of Fremont across the river on the ninth day 
of June. The battle of Port Republic was a 
bloody fight of four hours. Here the intrepid 



The Centaur of the South 159 

Dick Taylor, with his Louisiana Brigade, em- 
bracing the Tigers, made three desperate charges 
on the Federal battery before it could be held, 
and then only with assistance. Here a part of 
Ashby's old command, the horse artillery, under 
the gallant and skilful Chew, with Lieutenants 
Jim Thompson and Tuck Carter, fighting their 
guns ** with a boldness almost to a fault,'* glori- 
fied the memory of Ashby as he rested in the 
classic environs of the University of Virginia/ 

In the last heavy skirmish of General Ashby, 
Lieutenant-Colonel Kaine of the Pennsylvania 
Bucktail Rifles and some of his men were cap- 
tured. Colonel Kaine, immediately after he was 
taken, in a conversation with Captain, afterwards 
Colonel Herbert, who commanded the Maryland 
skirmishers on that occasion, said: "I have to- 
day saved the life of one of the most gallant offi- 
cers of either army, — General Ashby, — for I ad- 
mire him as much as you can possibly do. His 
figure is familiar to me, inasmuch as I have often 
seen it on the skirmish line. He was today in 
fifty yards of my skirmishers sitting on his horse 
as if unconscious of his danger. I saw three of 



^ He and his brother both reinterred in Winchester after the war. 



160 General Turner Ashby 

them raise their rifles to fire, but I succeeded in 
stopping two of them, and struck up the gun of 
the third as it went off. Ashby is too brave to 
die that way.*' ^ 

Rare and glorious fate, that Ashby's gallant 
and generous foe should pronounce his first eulogy. 
A magnetic heroism to draw alike the love and 
admiration of friends and foes. Ashby was dead 
and Colonel Kaine did not know it until after this 
conversation. 

General Jackson, it is reported, rode with his 
staff through his army after the death of Ashby 
to inspire and encourage the men, fearing the de- 
pressing influence of his death. General Jackson 
says: "An official report is not an appropriate 
place for more than a passing notice of the dis- 
tinguished dead, but the close relations which 
General Ashby bore to my command for the 
most of the previous twelve months will justify 
me in saying that as a partisan officer I never knew 
his superior; his daring was proverbial; his powers 
of endurance almost incredible; his tone of char- 
acter heroic, and his sagacity almost intuitive in 

1 Averitt page 233. 



The Centaur of the South 161 

divining the purposes and movements of the 
enemy." ^ 

If the adjective " partisan " descriptive of the 
noun ** officer '* is restricted to the first clause of 
General Jackson's sentence, and was so meant by 
him, partisan officer would be justified in that con- 
nection, but if the adjective describing the noun 
is descriptive of all the clauses of the sentence and 
Jackson so meant it, he has not only made a 
mistake but has done General Ashby great in- 
justice. The military definition of partisan is not 
only well knov/n to educated soldiers but to the 
laity generally. It is here quoted: "One skil- 
ful in the command of detached troops, who, be- 
ing well acquainted with the country, is employed 
to gain intelligence, to surprise the enemy's con- 
voys, and to perform other duties of desultory 
warfare." 

In the first place. General Jackson's own de- 
scription of Ashby, in the close relations he bore 
to his command, as his cavalry commander, dis- 
proves the partisan idea. The definition confines 
the partisan to the command of detached troops 
and also to desultory warfare. To make Ashby a 
partisan, while connected with Jackson, would 

iQ. R. Series i, Vol. 12, part i, page 712. 



162 General Turner Ashby 

make Jackson a partisan also. To make Jack- 
son a partisan would make his campaign in the 
valley a desultory warfare. The definition it will 
be seen is based on two central ideas, detached 
troops and to perform other duties of desultory 
warfare. Ashby for almost twelve months, the 
time General Jackson speaks of him, neither had 
a detached command nor carried on a desultory 
warfare. He carried on the warfare that Jack- 
son carried on and ordered him to do, and Jack- 
son carried on the warfare that General Lee or- 
dered him to perform. Leaving the definition, 
and looking at the matter in its broader light, did 
anybody ever know of a partisan to carry on a 
desultory warfare with cavalry, infantry, and artil- 
lery? Both from the definition and the nature of 
the service to be rendered, this is not the work of 
a partisan. We have from the beginning seen that 
Ashby commanded all these arms of the service. 
Leaving this discussion for a moment, we quote 
on the point Colonel Chew's very apt remarks: 
** I know he was called a partisan soldier, and 
yet his whole service was with the regular army 
of the South, for the most part with Jackson. It 
would have been fortunate for the South if many 



The Centaur of the South 163 

of the West Point generals had possessed the en- 
terprise and indomitable courage and genius of 
such men as Ashby, Hampton, and Forrest. The 
qualities of a soldier were all blended in him, and 
while those qualities might well have been im- 
proved by military training, no amount of such 
training and education could ever make a soldier 
of eminence of a man who was devoid of them." 

Major John W. Carter, of Chew's Battery, 
forcibly says: 

** The idea that Ashby was merely a partisan 
officer is an entirely absurd one. He was a gen- 
eral of exceeding skill and ability. Ashby was a 
man of exceedingly good judgment and foresight, 
and as was remarked of him, by Jackson during 
the valley campaign, * he always had an intuitive 
perception of what the enemy were going to at- 
tempt.' " 

At Kernstown we have seen how by his bold- 
ness and skill he held Jackson's right center froni 
ten o'clock in the morning until dark. He em- 
ployed here his horse artillery, cavalry, and in- 
fantry. Was Jackson leaving his most vulnerable 
point to only a partisan, and was Jackson's army 



164 General Turner Ashby 

there kept from being crushed on his right flank 
by only a partisan? On February 21 st and 22nd 
Ashby was given the power by the Secretary of 
War, the Hon. Judah P. Benjamin, to raise, in 
addition to his other command, cavalry, heavy 
artillery and infantry. Does partisan warfare em- 
brace, to say nothing of infantry, heavy artillery? 
And this authority was conferred while Ashby 
was only a Lieutenant-Colonel, three months be- 
fore he was made a Brigadier-General. On the 
sixth day of June, to hold Fremont back, he lost 
his life, commanding Ewell's infantry, snatching 
the last hour of grace from the jaws of death to 
aid his commander-in-chief. 

Another light on Ashby as a soldier is drawn 
fiom General Lee's dispatch to the Secretary of 
War, the day after his death. He says : " I grieve 
at the death of General Ashby. I hope he (Jack- 
son) will find a successor. I doubt whether R — 
would be. * * * We must endeavor to find 
some one. General Stuart (J. E. B.) mentions 

Colonel of the — Virginia Cavalry. I do 

not know whether he could carry with him Ash- 
by's men. Send the — regiments you mention. 




MAJOR JAMES THOMSON 



The Centaur of the South 165 

They will be some help. We must aid a gallant 
man if we perish." ^ 

Why is General Lee so anxious and disturbed 
to find a man able to fill Ashby*s place if he was 
only a partisan officer? The truth is General Lee 
knew Ashby was a commander of great ability 
and skill, and he shows this in the dispatch to 
the Secretary of War by refusing to endorse 
Stuart's recommendation and not recommending 
any other officer. In a postscript he asks, how 
would two other officers do ? But does not endorse 
them. One of them proved to be a splendid 
officer and became a general, as did also the 
colonel Stuart named, but they had not made 
their reputations that early in the war. For obvious 
reasons the names in General Lee's dispatch are 
left blank as well as a part of the reference to the 
war records. If Ashby was a partisan officer. 
General Jeb Stuart was also, for Ashby bore the 
same relation to Jackson that Stuart bore to Lee. 
Again, at the time of the death of Ashby, or be- 
fore, v/hen on the 23rd day of May, 1 862, Ashby 
was made a Brigadier-General ^ by Jackson, there 



10. R. Series i, Vol. ii. 
2 Confederate Hand-Book. 



166 General Turner Ashby 

was but one other Brigadier-General of Cavalry 
in the Army of Northern Virginia, General J. E. 
B. Stuart. General George H. Steuart, we have 
seen from General Jackson's official report, was 
only in temporary command of cavalry, and Jack- 
son transferred him to the infantry and placed his 
cavalry, the Second and Sixth Virginia, under 
the command of Ashby. General Wade Hamp- 
ton ^ was a colonel, commanding a brigade of in- 
fantry at the Seven Pines Battle on the 31st day 
of May and 1st day of June, 1862. 

Here we have this partisan officer, so-called, 
also the untrained soldier, outstripping all the 
West Pointers and all others in the cavalry, ex- 
cept General J. E. B. Stuart, and holding the 
same rank of brigadier-general with him. Strange 
record it seems for Ashby to make without polit- 
ical influence, which he would have scorned to 
have used, and stranger still, in the face of this 
record, that he should be called only a partisan 
officer. We have come to the conclusion after 
reviewing all the evidence that General Jackson 
did not mean to say that Ashby was only a parti- 



1 See General Joseph E. Johnston's report of the battle of Seven 
Pines, also General Smith's report of the battle of Seven Pines. 



The Centaur of the South 167 

san officer, because he could not do so with Ash- 
by's brilliant regular army record staring him in the 
face. It takes the highest capacity, great boldness 
and coolness, combined, to make a partisan. It is 
believed that no officer ever developed into a great 
commander without these essentials; but it takes 
more, the latent reserve power of combination. 
Lee showed his partisan capacity in Mexico many 
times. He also showed it after the battle of 
Gettysburg in his letter to Mr. Davis, offering his 
resignation. He said in effect on this point, that 
his eyes were failing, he could not see for himself 
and could not rely on others. Jackson lost his 
life by doing partisan work at Chancellorsville, 
seeking information, the exact location of the ene- 
my's lines. 



Chapter XV. 

DEDUCTIONS, REFLECTIONS. 
EXTRACTS. 

As most things are relative in their nature, so, if 
the reader will run a parallel between Ashby and 
some of the other general officers of the Confed- 
eracy up to the time of his death, his real size 
will be taken at once. Fitz Lee, Wheeler, and 
Morgan ^ were only colonels, the great Forrest,^ 
too, was still a colonel, and had not then em- 
blazoned his star upon the field of war. Jeb 
Stuart had not yet " made good " in his ride 
around McClellan,^ which caused his fame to 
circle the world. Kirby Smith, A. P. Hill, Dick 
Taylor, Ewell, S. D. Lee, had not risen to 
prominence and to the command of corps, as they 
did some one and some two years later. Hood 
and Pickett had yet to develop their incomparable 
fighting qualities at the seven days' battles around 
Richmond and Gettysburg. Beauregard had not 



1 Confederate Hand-Book, 
*June 13-15, 1862. 

169 



1 70 General Turner Ashby 

then developed as the greatest military engineer of 
his day. Jubal Early had not made his almost in- 
comparable flank movement through the valley 
with a small force and threatened the very gates 
of Washington City in 1864. J. E. Johnston 
vv^as shot in May, 1 862, and thereby lost the com- 
mand of the army of Northern Virginia. J. B. 
Gordon was still a colonel, and was undistinguish- 
ed until later in the war. Albert Sydney John- 
ston, at the moment of his great triumph in strategy 
and tactics, had gone down on the bloody field 
of Shiloh. Hampton, a great soldier, rose for 
the first time as a leader at Trevillians in 1864. 
Longstreet had not yet won the title of " Lee's 
war horse." Jackson did not until after Port 
Republic and Ashby had passed away, encircle 
his name with the blaze of immortality; and the 
greatest light of all, Lee, had not yet risen the past 
master of the science of war, in all of its mighty 
scope and power. Ashby, before all these general 
officers had clinched their reputations, by the most 
superb courage, genius and effort, had done his 
work, and passed away, leaving a name, around 
which the fierce light of fame will always beat. 
On the 21st and 22nd of February, 1862, the 



The Centaur of the South 1 7 1 

Secretary of War, as we know, authorized Ashby, 
then only a lieutenant-colonel, to raise cavalry, in- 
fantry, and heavy artillery. Henderson, in his 
Life of Jackson, so able and exhaustive a work 
that Jackson will never need another biographer, 
says: ** Mr. Benjamin, dazzled by Ashby's ex- 
ploits, had given him authority to raise,'* etc.^ 
Here is the best evidence that he outstripped all 
others in his short and brilliant career; and here 
is the best evidence that he was not a partisan. 
If Ashby had been only a partisan, would the 
greatest minister of Mr. Davis's cabinet, except 
John C. Breckinridge, have recognized him 
by conferring this great power to raise an army 
corps, cavalry, infantry, and heavy artillery? All 
the arms of the service, especially heavy artillery, 
could only comprise a division or a corps. Such 
distinction is not thrust upon partisans, nor upon 
any man without marked ability. Who else had 
such power and authority conferred upon him the 
first ten months of the war, without military train- 
ing and without any of the fortuitous aid of the 
politician or the eclat of the schools? Do min- 
isters of war put such an engine of destruction in 

1 Henderson, Vol. i, page 273. 



1 72 General Turner Ashby 

the hands of a tyro, first to sacrifice the brave 
units of their own command, then the cause, for 
which he and his government are striving to win? 
Was the great member of the cabinet 'justified in 
this unusual authority bestowed upon Ashby? 
First let him stand or fall by his own deeds. The 
reader has here only a glimpse of them, but 
eonugh to show the brilliant stuff of which he was 
made. Some of his best officers have given their 
testimony in strong and striking terms of him in 
letters and extracts in this volume. The reader 
should carefully peruse these, as the writers be- 
came still more prominent under other command- 
ers, and grew as Ashby had schooled them, to 
rise equal to every emergency. One, Colonel 
Chew, became the famous commander of all the 
horse artillery of the army of Northern Virginia. 
His rank was equal to that of a general officer in 
any other arm of the service, except the engineer 
corps. It will be noticed that the authority con- 
ferred by the Secretary of War in February was 
not revoked either by the President, the Secretary 
of War or General Lee. General Lee states to 
the Secretary of War that he did not know Ash- 
by had this authority; neither did General Jack- 



The Centaur of the South 1 73 

son know it, nor the most intimate friends of 
Ashby. This man of war, whose life was a bat- 
tle, was also the modest gentleman, the stainless 
citizen, the true friend and the romantic hero and 
idol of his men. Red tape. West Pointism, was 
hard at the beginning of the war to overcome, 
and Ashby was the only m.an who broke through 
this hard shell during the first year. As evidence, 
witness Forrest with his command taken from him 
and compelled to recruit another. This Ashby 
refused to submit to. Hampton had a long strug- 
gle of years, as well as Gordon, to rise above this 
prejudice. Ashby 's career being so much more 
rapid and brilliant, he became the devoted ob- 
ject of the hardest of these shafts of prejudice and 
injustice. Everybody acquits General Lee of the 
red tape virus. He rendered to every man the 
tribute due his merit. West Pointer or civilian sol- 
dier. His personal staff of three brilliant officers. 
Colonels Taylor, Venable,^ and Marshall, v/ere 
not West Point men. One was a banker, one a 
professor, and the other a lawyer. 

^ " In the beginning of the war, when war was 

lA flower to the memory of dear old Yen., whose noble life will 
be cherished long by many students of the University of Virginia, 
a Colonel Chew's letter. 



1 74 General Turner Ashby 

a novelty to a large majority of the soldiers of 
the South, Ashby developed a skill that v/as equal 
to that of any officer who had the advantage of 
a West Point education. He always appeared to 
be equal to any occasion that presented itself, and 
his capacity and ability seemed to broaden as the 
theater in which he operated expanded. Ashby 
early won a brilliant reputation. He was the 
kind of a man around whose character there was 
a halo of romance. He was perfectly pure and 
chaste in his character, gentle in manner and won 
the devotion of all who came in contact with him. 
He was devoted to the cause of the South, thor- 
oughly patriotic, and was always ready to co- 
operate with any officer under whom he served. 
It has always been my deliberate judgment that 
had he lived he would have been recognized as 
an officer of extraordinary skill and brilliant capac- 
ity. It was said of General Lee and Stonewall 
Jackson that they never saw the enemy in their 
front that they did not want to attack them, and 
this disposition was fully developed in Ashby 's 
character. He was preeminently a fighter. I hope 
you may succeed in giving a history of this remark- 
able man that will do justice to his career.'* 



The Centaur of the South ] 75 

Major Carter says, in his letter, ** He was a 
general of exceeding skill and ability. Ashby was 
a man of exceedingly good judgment and fore- 
sight; and, as was remarked of him by Jackson 
during the valley campaign, he always had an in- 
tuitive perception of what the enemy were going 
to attempt." 

The following extract is from the letter of Dr. 
N. G. West, surgeon on General Ashby*s staff: 

** The company organization was most excel- 
lent. This was entirely satisfactory to the men, 
as the supreme commander was the same in either 
case. It will be remembered that the command 
was usually in the field engaged in actual hostility, 
and was considered sufficient for practical and 
fighting purposes. These circumstances prevented 
regimental organization. General Ashby was a 
man before he was a soldier. He was able to 
lead, direct or plan. He had in his command 
proper cavalry, artillery and often infantry added 
thereto temporarily. He was a man equal to the 
emergency, and had a reserve force for that which 
might come next. Little more than a year had 
passed since he had emerged from country pur- 
suits, became a soldier and filled a great portion 



1 76 General Turner Ashby 

of the world with lasting fame. Mindful of the 
honor conferred in each and every one of the 
several assignments of the P. A. C. S., I hold as 
a peer of any the retrospective pride in the fact 
of the membership of the Ashby command.*' 

The following extracts are from the letter of 
Dr. T. L. Settle, surgeon on the staff of General 
Ashby, and also the friend of Ashby before the 
war began. It will be noted that Ashby organized 
the first raid that became so popular with Southern 
commanders of cavalry later in the v/ar : 

** Ashby suggested the first raid of which I 
have knowledge. It was to select his men, leave 
the valley and capture General Gary, encomped 
at Markham. General Jackson at first agreed, 
but after considering the proposition declined to 
allow Ashby to leave his (Jackson's) front. This 
was in the spring of 1862. His first attempt at 
leadership, which was successful, v/as v/hen quite 
a youngster. During the construction of the 
Manassas Gap Railroad the employees raised a 
racket in the shape of a riot. Ashby promptly 
gathered together a few brave and courageous 
spirits, marched to the place of trouble, and 
speedily restored peace and order. He then or- 



The Centaur of the South 1 11 

ganized a company of cavalry. This company 
was the nucleus around which he collected, by 
authority of the War Department of the C. S. A., 
other companies, which constituted the Ashby 
command until his promotion to Brigadier- 
General. Jackson, in my opinion, held Ashby in 
high esteem. The night after Ashby was killed 
Jackson said Ashby had never given him a piece 
of information about the enemy that proved to be 
incorrect. I have in my possession an autograph 
letter from Jackson forwarding Ashby his promo- 
tion to Colonel of Cavalry, C. S. A., which is 
very complimentary and mentions his ( Ashby 's) 
well earned promotion. Ashby's discipline has 
been much discussed. He did not believe in 
m,achine-made soldiers. At any rate he and his 
men were alawys equal to any and all emergencies 
that arose and came their way. As to my opinion 
of Ashby, my limited vocabulary would utterly 
fail to express it. Suffice it, that as a citizen and 
a soldier his example is worthy of the emulation 
of the youth and the adults of any community.'* 

Lieutenant-Colonel Lige White was transferred 
from another company of cavalry at the beginning 



1 78 General Turner Ashby 

of the war and joined Ashby; ** because he was 
the man doing the fighting at that time." ^ 

Colonel White had a splendid battalion of cav- 
ailry that he raised, which became a part of Ash- 
by *s brigade. The writer heard General Hamp- 
ton say that he " never ordered White to clear the 
road of the enemy that he did not ride over every- 
thing in sight.** He was badly wounded some 
eight or ten times, but as soon as he could go, he 
was up and seeking the fight again. 

The noted fighter. Colonel Harry Gilmore, of 
Maryland, was also at one time a member of 
Ashby 's horse, Company G. If the first rule of 
war is to make no mistakes yourself, we can look 
as carefully as possible, and they will be hard to 
find in Ashby. If the second rule is to take ad- 
vantage of your adversary's mistakes, it will ap- 
pear from the following quotation how on the alert 
he always was in this direction. Colonel Chew 
says: 

** I have seen General Ashby under fire in fully 
a hundred battles and skirmishes, and he always 
appeared to me to be absolutely without conscious- 
ness of danger, cool and self-possessed, and ever 
alert, and quick as lightning to take advantage of 

^ His language to the writer. 



The Centaur of the South 179 

any mistake of the enemy. He was always vigi- 
lant and remarkably sagacious in discovering er- 
roneous movements on the part of the Federals.'* 

Could a tribute be finer than this from the com- 
mander of all the horse artillery of Lee's army 
before he was twenty-two years old, who fought 
under all of its commanders, and is today as com- 
petent an authority on military questions as any 
man living in the United States. If further testi- 
mony is needed, turn to General Jackson's official 
reports on both points. If we try him by the 
harder test laid down by Generals Lee and A. S. 
Johnston in letters to the President, Mr. Davis, 
that of success, he will not be found wanting. He 
never failed to accomplish the duty assigned him, 
nor failed on his own initiative. Ashby had a 
passion for war and danger.^ At Boteler's Mill, 
upon his white horse, he rode back and forth on 
the crest of the hill to encourage the militia under 
a hot fire from sharpshooters. When the fire was 
hottest the moving picture becomes motionless — 
the Centaur of the South. ^ At Winchester, per- 
mitting himself to be cut off by two of the enemy, 
he cuts down one with his saber and captures the 

^ Cooke. 



180 General Turner Ashby 

other. Ashby was an expert swordsman as well 
as horseman. His was not the heavy cut of Rich- 
ard Coeur de Lion, but the more deadly thrust 
of Saladin. Ashby, as all successful generals do, 
grew with his opportunity and the responsibility 
of increasing power. He was the typical product 
of Southern civilization, and ** all things high came 
easy to him." He has left to his countrymen, 
to be cherished as their ideal, the asset of a moral 
and military classic. 

It is difficult to articulate the latent power that 
Ashby possessed on demand. We will have to 
go to the scientists for the triple word to express it. 
** Ultra-atomic-energy." The great repose of 
multiple power and energy, at the psychological 
moment. 

To the stranger, who may chance to read this 
sketch, Ashby's life may seem to be overdrawn. 
If the stranger could know a modicum of even 
what the writer knov/s, not to mention his com- 
rades, he would realize that the half has not been 
told. Ashby taught his brigade that the business 
of their lives was to ** take the bulge " and die 
defending the South. This gray line grows thin- 
ner year by year, but they would not exchange 



The Centaur of the South 181 

their recollections of each other and their match- 
less leader for all the other things the world holds 
priceless. If Ashby had lived after General Jack- 
son united with General Lee around Richmond, 
he would have been left in command of the val- 
ley. Then would the time have arrived, in the 
judgment of the writer, which Ashby would have 
seized to form a division first, and then a corps, 
under the authority of the Secretary of War, given 
him in February before. The young men not al- 
ready in the army would have flocked to his 
colors, as we have seen before. General Lee 
would have had another " right arm *' to execute 
his grand strategy, and to capture Harper's Ferry 
en route to Sharpsburg in 1862, and in all proba- 
bility have won that battle. The writer's connec- 
tion ceases, at the death of Ashby, with his old 
brigade.^ There never was a more spirited set of 
men and officers than the " Old Guard who fol- 
lowed the hard and brilliant fighters. Generals 
W. E. Jones, T. L. Rosser, and James Dearing, 
their later commanders to the bitter end, where 
the Southern cross went down in the splendid 



17th Virgina, 12th and nth Virginia regiments and White's 
Battalion (and the 6th Virginia Cavalry from June, 1862, until 
after the battle of Gettysburg). 



182 General Turner Ashby 

pathos of its ruin. The maids of Carthage strung 
the bows of their defenders with their hair in 
devotion to their cause. What did the noble 
women of the South do for their country? 
Everything that love and devotion could sacri- 
fice they gave; their fathers, husbands, sons, and 
lovers, their substance, the work and mercy 
of hearts and hands. The Southern cause had 
its embattled strength in the moral power of 
their hearts. The faithful slave should have a 
monument erected in the capital city of every 
Southern State. The body servant of the South- 
ern soldier was last to be seen on entering battle 
and the first to render service afterward. The 
slave was the faithful friend at home of the wo- 
men and children. It is not more certain that the 
Confederate army could not have fought without 
men than that the women and children could not 
have lived without the kindness of the faithful 
slave. The writer declares most deliberately that 
but for the reconstruction acts of Congress, dis- 
tilling the poison of the toad through the carpet- 
bagger, the two races would have been friends to 
this day, and so remained. Freedom, the delusion 
of destruction, was thrust upon the colored race. 



The Centaur of the South 183 

Kind masters, who provided for all their wants, 
were exchanged for taskmasters, who required 
" brick without straw." Liberty, without self- 
training, becomes the instrument of its own de- 
struction, and for nearly a half a century the his- 
tory of the colored race has proved the truth of 
this natural law. This sketch can close with no 
more fitting allusion than to name the faithful ser- 
vants of the writer's own family: Jim Crawford, 
Sam Ashley and Henry, body servants in the 
war; Bill Smith, farm hand; Tom Ashley, black- 
smith; Eliza Crawley, cook; Judy Smith, and 
Louisa Ashford, housemaids. 



Chapter XVI. 

LETTERS— COMMENTS— OFFICIAL 
EXTRACTS. 

Delaplane, Va., March 1, 1907. 
Clarence Thomas, Esq., 

Middleburg, Va. 
My dear Clarence: 

I am glad you are writing a military sketch of 
General Turner Ashby. His men and our peo- 
ple generally feel that he has not had justice done 
him. 

Hoping that success may attend your efforts, 
I am. 

Truly your friend, 

(Signed) Henry S. Ashby. 

The above letter is from General Turner Ash- 
by*s kinsman, Henry S. Ashby, of Fauquier 
County, Virginia. As a youth he joined Mosby's 
command and proved he vv^as made of the same 
fighting metal as the General. In " Mosby's 
Rangers," on pages 1 14 and 118, it is seen that 
185 



186 General Turner Ashby 

he rode with the boldest men of the command — 
Lieutenant Tom Turner of Baltimore, Mount- 
joy, John Edmunds, and others. 



It is a work of supererogation to give official 
notices and reports of the commanding officers of 
the Army of Northern Virginia on the record of 
Lieutenant-Colonel R. Preston Chew, command- 
ing before the close of the war all the horse artil- 
lery of that army. They run through some twenty 
books of official reports of the United States Gov- 
ernment. Before introducing Colonel Chew's let- 
ter on General Ashby a few will be given, as 
well as some extracts from his commanders, since 
the war. General Charles S. Winder, speaking 
of him and his battery in the battle of Port Re- 
public, says: 

" Captain Chew here reported to me and did 
good execution with his battery, displaying great 
skill and accuracy in his fire." 

General Jackson says of this fight also: 

" Chew's Battery now reported and was placed 
in position and did good service." 

General Munford, in the Maryland campaign 
of 1862, says: 



The Centaur of the South 187 

" Captain Chew used his guns with great cool- 
ness and effect, and his battery only retired when 
he had exhausted every round of ammunition/* 

Also in the spring of 1 863, including the fight 
at Crampton's Gap, he reports: 

" Captain R. P. Chew, as true as steel, and 
ever ready, deserves to be mentioned." 

General Jackson, writing to General Lee, Feb- 
ruary 19, 1863, says: 

^ ** These remarks are applied to Captain R. 
P. Chew, who now commands the Ashby Bat- 
tery, which is with Brigadier-General W. E. 
Jones. Captain Chew has seen comparatively 
much artillery service in the Valley, and is a re- 
markably fine artillery officer, and I recommend 
that he be promoted and assigned." * * * 

Again, on the twenty-eighth of February, 1 863, 
General Jackson says: 

^ " The same principle leads me when selec- 
tions have to be made outside of my command to 
recommend those, if there be such, whose former 
service with me prove them well qualified for fiU- 

1 O. R. Series i, Vol. 25, part 2. 

2 Ibid. 



188 General Turner Ashby 

ing the vacancies. This induces me to recom- 
mend Captain Chew, who does not belong to 
this army corps, but whose well earned reputation, 
when with me, has not been forgotten.** 

"April 6, 1864.. 
" General : 

" Your note concerning Dearing is just received. 
Major Chew, the officer now in charge of the 
horse artillery, is doing so w^ell that I am disin- 
clined to put any one over him, although I have 
a high appreciation of the officer you propose. I 
think Chew will answer as the permanent com- 
mander, and being identified with the horse artil- 
lery is, therefore, desirable to others. 

** Most respectfully your obedient servant and 
friend, 

"J. E. B. Stuart, 

** Major-General.*' 
" Gen. W. N. Pendleton, 

Ch. of Artry Northern Va.'* 

General Hampton at the fight of Trevillians in 
June, 1864, says: 

** The artillery under Major Chew was ad- 
mirably handled and did good service.** 



The Centaur of the South 189 

Again Hampton, at Burgess' Mill, November 
21, 1864, says: 

" Major Chew, as in all previous fights of the 
command, behaved admirably, and handled his 
artillery to great advantage. I beg to recommend 
him for promotion, and that he be assigned to the 
command of all the artillery of the cavalry corps." 

From letters and papers relating to Colonel 
Chew, General Hampton says: 

** I alwa3^s regarded him as the best com- 
mander of the horse artillery, though that gal- 
lant body of men had been under the command 

at different times of very able and efficient offi- 

»» 
cers. 

General Munford, in letters and papers, says : 
" I often think of my associations with your 
splendid old battery of Ashby's command. Gal- 
lant Ashby. Yes, superb Ashby. Glorious bat- 
tery. A battery that the great Alexander, who 
inaugurated the flying artillery, would have been 
proud of. Light-hearted, dashing daredevils, 
who relied upon their guns, and whose motto was 
level firing with grape and canister." 



190 General Turner Ashby 

From letters and papers. Colonel Chew: 
** On the morning of April 9th, before the sur- 
render was completed. Chew with a part of his 
horse artillery passed around the left flank of 
Grant's army, and marched to Greensboro, N. C, 
to join the army of General J. E. Johnston." 

Charles Town, Jefferson Co., W. Va., 
March 3rd, 1907. 
Mr. Clarence Thomas, 

Middleburg. Va. 
Dear Sir: 

Replying to your favor of February 26th, will 
say that Chew's Battery was organized on the 
thirteenth of November, 1861. We organized at 
Flowing Springs, in this county, and elected the 
following officers: R. P. Chew, Captain; Milton 
Rouse, First Lieutenant; J. W. McCarty, Second 
Lieutenant; and James W. Thomson, Second 
Lieutenant. McCarty, after serving with us for 
some time, resigned and joined the cavalry; and 
Rouse, when we re-organized in 1862, was 
elected Lieutenant in Baylor's company. Both 
of these officers served with distinction in the cav- 
alry. John H. Williams and J. W. Carter were 



The Centaur of the South 191 

elected lieutenants. I was promoted in the spring 
of 1864 to the command of Stuart's horse artil- 
lery. Thomson was then made captain; Wil- 
liams, first lieutenant, and Carter and E. L. Yan- 
cey, second lieutenants. I was promoted to Lieu- 
tenant-Colonel on March 1st, 1865. We re- 
organized the horse artillery, as you will Fnd on 
the second page of the pamphlet I send, and 
Thomson was made major, and Carter succeeded 
to the captaincy. The reputation made by Thom- 
son and Carter is so well known that it is hardly 
necessary for me to allude to it. They both were 
dashing officers, bold almost to a fault in fighting 
their guns and were highly esteemed for their gal- 
lantry and enterprise by all the cavalry com- 
manders with whom they served. Thomson was 
killed at High Bridge on the sixth of April, 1865. 
I served with Stuart for a few months before he 
was killed, and during the balance of the war 
with Hampton, who was made chief of the cav- 
alry. 

General Ashby, when we organized, insisted on 
having all the men mounted, and this was the 
first battery of horse artillery thus organized in 
the Civil War. We started out with only thirty- 



192 General Turner Ashby 

three men, and three guns, one of which was an 
English piece, known as " The Blakeley,'* a rifle 
gun, that won a great reputation because of the 
accuracy with which shells from it could be 
thrown. I served from this time with Ashby, 
until he was killed near Harrisonburg. He was 
very fond of the roar of artillery and was with 
us constantly on the battlefield, and when we were 
shelling the enemy, either in the advance or the 
retreat of Jackson*s army. I knov/ that on that 
occasion, the independent enterprise as designated 
by Dabney and followed by Cooke and Hender- 
son, Ashby was with the army immediately in 
front of Winchester, and when we were in pur- 
suit of Banks on the Martinsburg road, was in our 
front, dashing on the enem.y v/ith a small force, 
probably forty or fifty cavalry men. He did not 
have a large force of cavalry with him on this 
expedition. Funston had several hundred men, 
who had become scattered, and the bulk of Ash- 
by's cavalry were picketed from Franklin to the 
country east of the Blue Ridge Mountains. 

It would be folly to say that Ashby would not 
have been improved by military training and edu- 
cation, but in the beginning of the war, when war 



The Centaur of the South 193 

was a novelty to a large majority of the soldiers 
of the South, Ashby developed a skill that w^as 
equal to that of any officer w^ho had had the ad- 
vantage of a West Point education, and it may 
be said that he should be classed w^ith Forrest, 
Hampton, and Morgan, whose remarkable careers 
are unsurpassed by any cavalry officers in the Con- 
federate service. 

I have seen General Ashby under fire in full a 
hundred battles and skirmishes, and he always ap- 
peared to me to be absolutely without conscious- 
ness of danger, cool and self-possessed and ever 
alert and quick as lightning to take advantage of 
any mistake of the enemy. He was always vigi- 
lant and remarkably sagacious in discovering er- 
roneous movement on the part of the Federals. 
He was with our guns when we were fighting from 
hill to hill. Upon several occasions I suggested 
to him that we were lavish in the expenditure of 
ammunition, but he said he believed in firing at 
the enemy whenever they showed their heads. 
He was reckless in the exposure of his person, and 
when he was cautioned about this, replied that an 
officer should always go to the front and take risks 
in order to keep his men up to the mark. 



194 General Turner Ashby 

He always appeared to be equal to any 
occasion that presented itself^ and his capacity and 
ability seemed to broaden as the theatre in which 
he operated expanded. When it was very neces- 
sary to delay the enemy who were pressing after 
Jackson on his retreat from Winchester, where he 
had defeated Banks, he displayed great skill and 
stubbornness in fighting them from every hill top. 
He would form a skirmish line and open on them 
with artillery, compel them to halt and form line 
of battle, and when their superior forces drew 
dangerously near to his men, he would skilfully 
withdraw and form on the next hill. At Edin- 
burg, where the two armies confronted each other 
for thirty days, his cavalry dismounted, and our 
three guns were engaged almost constantly for 
twenty-eight days. He had at that time twenty- 
six companies of cavalry. They were finely offi- 
cered and well commanded. General Jones said 
the Seventh Virginia Cavalry had the finest lot 
of company officers of any regiment he ever say, 
and Ashby had planned a regimental organiza- 
tion and selected his field officers when the con- 
troversy between General Jackson and himself oc- 
curred. 



The Centaur of the South 195 

About Ashby's resignation, after he tendered 
his resignation, Jackson sent for him. This oc- 
curred at Conrad's store. On his return, I with 
several of his officers was on the porch, and when 
he came up he told us what had occurred, and 
my recollection of it is as follows: When he met 
Jackson, Jackson asked him to withdraw his resig- 
nation, and told him what reasons had influenced 
him, Jackson, in withdrawing his resignation, 
when the Secretary of War sent an order over his 
head to Loring to fall back from Romney. Ashby 
told him he had tendered his resignation in earnest 
and wanted it forwarded to the Secretary of War, 
and that but for the fact that he had the highest 
respect for Jackson's ability as a soldier, and be- 
lieved him essential to the cause of the South, 
he would hold him to a personal account for the 
indignity he had put upon him. He then turned 
and went out of the the tent. He said his purpose 
was to organize an independent command, and 
operate in the lower Valley and the Piedmont 
country. All of the officers present declared their 
intention to go with him. Jackson restored the 
conmiand to him, and all went smoothly from that 
time. 



196 General Turner Ashby 

I know he was called a ** partisan soldier,*' and 
yet his whole service was with the regular army 
of the South, for the most part with Jackson. It 
would have been a fortunate thing for the South 
if many of the West Point generals had possessed 
the enterprise and indomitable courage and genius 
of such men as Ashby, Hampton, and Forrest. 
The qualities of a soldier were all blended in 
him, and while these qualities might well have 
been improved by military training, no amount of 
such training and education could ever make a 
soldier of eminence of a man who was devoid of 
them. Ashby easily won a brilliant reputation. 
He was the kind of man around whose character 
there was a halo of romance. He was perfectly 
pure and chaste in his character, and gentle in his 
manner, and won the devotion of all who came in 
contact with him. He was devoted to the cause 
of the South, thoroughly patriotic, and was al- 
ways ready to co-operate with any officer under 
whom he served. I don't think this splendid body 
of men, though gallantly lead by able officers after 
his death, ever rendered more effective service 
than they did under Ashby. It has always been 
my deliberate judgment that, had he lived, he 



The Centaur of the South 197 

would have been recognized as an officer of extra- 
ordinary skill and brilliant capacity. When Jack- 
son moved dovv^n the Luray Valley and reached 
Cedarville, he directed Ashby to move on Mid- 
dletown. Funston was sent on with the bulk of 
the cavalry he had with him to Newtown to in- 
tercept the retreating forces of the enemy. Ashby 
marched rapidly toward Middletown with a small 
body of cavalry and two guns of Chew*s and 
two guns of Poague's Battery, followed at a dis- 
tance by the infantry, and ordering the men to 
follow him as swiftly as possible, he charged the 
enemy with the guns, the cavalry, artillery, and 
all moving together. We unlimbered within a 
few hundred feet of the Federal troops. Ashby 
with his men charged up to the stone fence along 
the road, with the cavalry and emptied their pis- 
tols into the retreating columns. The same day, 
near Christman's house, he did the same thing, 
charging the enemy with forty or fifty cavalry and 
Chew's Battery. This manoeuvre of charging 
with the horse artillery was often employed after- 
ward, but was first inaugurated by Ashby in his 
campaign of 1862. It was said of General Lee 
and Stonewall Jackson that they never saw the 



198 General Turner Ashby 

enemy in their front that they did not want to 
attack them, and this disposition was fully de- 
veloped in Ashby *s character. He was pre- 
eminently a fighter, and with his regiments properly 
organized and officered, he would have shown 
himself as dangerous a foe to Federal cavalry as 
they ever were called upon to encounter. 

I don't know what more I could say about him, 
that you could not gather from the records you 
have. You can glance over the letter in Avirett*s 
book and you will find among other things an 
allusion to the battle of Kernstown, where, fully 
alive to the great necessity of defending Jackson's 
right flank, and keeping the Valley pike clear, 
he displayed a skill as remarkable as ever Forrest 
did on any battlefield. 

Pardon me for saying my ambition as a com- 
mander of artillery was to handle my guns with 
skill and effect. I had in my battery four of the 
finest gunners in the army, and I taught them that 
their object should be to so handle their guns as 
to drive those of the enemy from their front, rather 
than to engage in spectacular display. I selected 
them for their coolness, intelligence and courage. 



The Centaur of the South 199 

And I can say for them that they rarely failed to 
drive our opponents from the field. 

I have, I fear, made this letter longer than need 
be, but vv^hen one gets to talking or writing about 
these events, it is difficult to be concise and brief 
as one would like to be. I hope you may succeed 
in giving a history of this remarkable man, that will 
do justice to his career. 

Yours truly, 

R. P. Chew. 



John W. Carter (Tuck) entered the Confed- 
erate Army as a youth in 1 86 1 , after taking prac- 
tical artillery training at Charlottesville, Va., and 
joined Chew's Battery as a private. He rose to 
be lieutenant and then captain of Chew's Battery 
before he was twenty years old. Chew and 
Thomson, his ranking officers, having been pro- 
moted. He was promoted to major, but the war 
closed without his receiving his commission. All 
the extracts on Major Carter are from the Official 
Records, except the incident at Piedmont, Fau- 
quier County, Virginia, which was related by the 
gallant Lieutenant Clapham Smith of Baltimore, 
Company G of the Seventh Virginia Regiment. 



200 General Turner Ashby 

" On the night of the 16th of May, 1863, says 
Lieutenant-Colonel O. R. Funston, a party of 
forty-five men under Captain R. P. Chew and 
Lieutenant J. W. Carter of Chew's Battery and 
Lieutenant G. B. Philpot of the Seventh Virginia, 
were sent down to attack the cavalry company, 
which was stationed in Charlestown, Jefferson 
County, which numbered about ninety-three men. 
The expedition was entirely successful in the be- 
ginning. The enemy was surprised about one 
o'clock at night, and besides several who were 
killed and wounded and left behind. Captain 
Chew brought out fifty-six prisoners and seventy- 
five horses. Unfortunately they were attacked the 
next day at 2 p. m., after having marched thirty- 
five miles on their return, at Piedmont, Fauquier 
County, Virginia, by about a hundred and twenty 
of the enemy's cavalry, and after a firm resistance, 
in which the captain commanding the enemy's 
cavalry was killed, besides several of his command, 
they were obliged to abandon the prisoners and 
captured horses." ^ 

Clap Smith said that Tuck Carter's horse be- 
ing played out he staid with him to give him a lift 

^ O. R. Series i, Vol. 25, page 145. 



The Centaur of the South 201 

just as two of the enemy ahead of their column 
charged on them, and as they passed them Tuck 
shot first one and then the other. The enemy 
seeing the fate of their comrades checked up, 
when Smith and Carter made their escape. One 
of the men killed was the captain spoken of in 
the report and the other a private. 

Major R. F. Beckham, commanding the horse 
artillery at Brandy Station, June 9, 1863, says 
of Carter at that fight: 

** The pieces first placed on Pettis Hill were 
under command of Lieutenant John W. Carter of 
Chew's Battery, and had been repeatedly charged 
by the enemy, and retaken by our cavalry, and 
at the time the two guns of McGregor's were 
brought towards the crest of the hill it was very 
doubtful which party had possession of it." ^ 

Major Carter was wounded in this affair where 
the artillery fought the enemy with sponge staffs. 
Colonel Thomas T. Munford, commanding the 
brigade in a skirmish at Charlestown, says: 

* * * " Captain B. H. Smith, Jr., Third 
Company Richmond Howitzers, was also on 
picket supporting Lieutenant J. W. Carter of 

iQ. R. Series i, Vol. 27, part 2, pages 172-3- 



202 General Turner Ashby 

Chew's Battery of my brigade with one three-inch 
rifle gun. Lieutenant Carter of Chew's Battery 
was wounded early in the action but returned to 
his gun as soon as his wound was dressed." ^ 

General R. E. Lee, writing to the Secretary of 
War, January 25, 1864, says: 

" I have received a copy of an authority grant- 
ed by the Department to Lieutenant John W. 
Carter, assisted by Sergeant John Chew and Jas- 
per N. Jones of Chew's Battery, to raise a com- 
pany of horse artillery within the enemy's lines." ^ 

General Lee, in a long letter to the Department, 
opposed Lieutenant Carter in raising his company, 
as detrimental to the service in losing good men 
in the regular army and making others dissatisfied. 
In this letter General Lee uses the following sig- 
nificant language : 

** We must rely for deliverance from our ene- 
mies upon other means than our arms. I trust 
that the truth of this assertion may be realized in 
time." ^ 

Mosby's Rangers says in the last fight in Vir- 
ginia, which occurred on the tenth day of April, 

1 O. R. Series i, Vol. 19, part 2, page 97. 
20. R. Series 1, Vol. 33, page 1120. 
3 Ibid. 



The Centaur of the South 203 

1865, the day after the surrender, on the banks 
of Bull Run, that: 

** Lieutenants Thompson and B. Frank Car- 
ter " (younger brother of Major Carter), " with 
about thirty men, charged and checked the ad- 
vance. * * * In the retreat which followed a 
few determined men, among them Lieutenant B. 
Frank Carter, Lieutenant James G. Wiltshire, 
Sergeant Mohler, Joseph Bryan, Thomas Kidd, 
B. B. Ransom, H. C. Dear, and a few others, 
formed a rear guard. * * * This brave little 
band exposed themselves with reckless daring to 
save their comrades.** ^ ** Lieutenants James G. 
Wiltshire and B. Frank Carter fired the last shots 
of the war on this occasion in Virginia across Bull 
Run in the faces of the enemy.** " 

San Francisco, California, 

March 10, 1907. 
Mr. Clarence Thomas, , 

Middleburg, Va. 
My dear Clarence: 

I have been intending constantly to write you, 
but, as usual, put it off. The idea that Ashby 



^ Mosby's Rangers, Williamson. 

2 Lieutenant James Wiltshire in the Baltimore Sun. 



204 General Turner Ashby 

was merely a partisan officer is an utterly absurd 
one. He was a General and of exceeding skill 
and ability. That at Middletown his men 
** stopped and went to looting '* has no sort of 
foundation. In fact I was in a position to know 
all that transpired there, and certainly saw noth- 
ing of the sort. Ashby was a man of exceedingly 
good judgment and foresight ; and, as was remark- 
ed of him by Jackson during the Valley campaign, 
** he always had an intuitive perception of what 
the enemy were going to attempt." The author 
of the Middletown story to which you refer has 
gotten things mixed. At Middletown we over- 
hauled some half dozen suttlers, who in their fright 
and attempt to escape upset their wagons, scat- 
terings some candies and confectionery, their usual 
stock in trade, on the pike — nothing to tempt a 
soldier from the ranks however. Chew, I think, 
can give you more, and more accurate informa- 
tion of Ashby and his achievements than any one. 
He organized for him the First Battery of Horse 
Artillery organized and served under him until 
he was killed. 

Yours sincerely, 

(Signed) J. W. Carter. 



The Centaur of the South 205 

The following letter is from the pen of Dr. 
N. G. West, of Leesburg, Va., who was appoint- 
ed surgeon on General Ashby's personal staff at 
the General's personal request. He is now a dis- 
tinguished physician of Leesburg, Loudoun Coun- 
ty, Virginia. 

** Camp Evans, Halltown, Va., 

"October 17, 1861. 
" I herewith submit Surgeon N. G. West's re- 
port, and cannot compliment him too highly, and 
respectfully submit his name as one worthy of an 
appointment. He is temporarily employed by me 
as a surgeon. 

** Your obedient servant, 

" Turner Ashby, 
" Lieut.-Col. Cav. C. S. A., Commanding Jeffer- 
son Co. 
" Hon. Mr. Benjamin, 
Secretary of War." 

Leesburg, Virginia, 
March 15, 1907. 
Mr. Clarence Thomas, 

Middleburg, Virginia. 
My dear Mr. Thomas : 

Ashby's command consisted, as well as I re- 



206 General Turner Ashby 

member, of twenty-seven companies. One of 
these was an artillery company. The company 
organization was most excellent. This was en- 
tirely satisfactory to the men, as the supreme com- 
mander was the same in either case. It will be 
remembered that the command was usually in the 
field engaged in actual hostilities and was consid- 
ered sufficient for practical and fighting purposes. 
These circumstances prevented regimental organi- 
zation. General Ashby was a man before he be- 
came a soldier. He was able to lead, direct or 
plan. He had in his command proper, cavalry, 
artillery, and, often, infantry added thereto, tem- 
porarily. He was a man equal to the emergency 
and held a reserved force for that which might 
come next. Little more than a year had passed 
since he had emerged from country pursuits, be- 
come a soldier and filled a great portion of the 
world with a lasting fame. 

** His life was gentle, and the elements so mixed 
in him. 
That nature might stand up and say to all the 
world : 

This was a man." 



The Centaur of the South 207 

I never heard of the men looting. 

Mindful of the honor conferred in each and 
every one of the several assignments in the P. A. 
C. S., I hold as peer of any the retrospective pride 
in the fact of the membership of the Ashby com- 
mand. 

Very truly yours, 

N. G. West. 

Dr. Thomas L. Settle, of Paris, Va., vv^as also 
a surgeon on the staff of General Ashby and a life- 
long friend. He is novv^ a distinguished physician 
at Paris, Fauquier County. The following letter 
from him contains two pieces of information never 
before published, the details of General Ashby*s 
resignation and probably the first proposition to 
make a raid on the enemy, which later was so 
popularized as to become the order of the day : 

Paris, Va.. March 19, 1907. 
Mr. Clarence Thomas, 

Dear Sir: — General Ashby's first attempt at 
leadership and successful was when quite a young- 
ster, during the construction of the Manassas Gap 
Railroad. The employees raised a racket in the 
shape of a riot. Ashby promptly gathered togeth- 



208 General Turner Ashby 

er a few brave and courageous spirits, marched to 
the scene of trouble and speedily restored peace 
and order. He then organized a company of 
cavalry with which he rendered efficient service 
in the John Brown raid, and was one of the first 
to reach Harper's Ferry in April, 1 86 1 . This 
company was the nucleus around which he col- 
lected by authority of the War Department of 
the C. S. A. twenty-six other companies, which 
constituted the Ashby command until his promo- 
tion to Brigadier-General. At the last engage- 
ment with the enemy he had in addition to his ov/n 
twenty-seven companies the Second and Sixth 
Regiments of Cavalry. In this encounter there 
were more men engaged than in any cavalry 
fight to that date, June 6, 1862. He was suc- 
cessful with the cavalry, but met death later in the 
day in the infantry fight. Ashby tendered his 
resignation before the Banks campaign. We were 
encamped near Conrad's store, where the road 
crosses the Blue Ridge through Swift Run Gap. 
Ewell came on the mountain at this point to re- 
enforce Jackson. Ashby was quartered near the 
river, Jackson between Ashby and the mountain. 
On the morning, I think to the best of my recol- 



The Centaur of the South 209 

lection it was in April just before Jackson moved 
against Milroy at McDowell, Ashby received the 
order to divide his command. He to retain com- 
mand of one-half and Major O. R. Funston to 
command the other, one to report for duty to 
General Winder and the other to General Tal- 
liaferro. I remember he (A.) was very indig- 
nant, and said that General Jackson was over- 
stepping his authority; that he had obtained from 
the War Department authority to organize his 
command, and he would not submit to such treat- 
ment, and if they were of equal rank he would 
challenge Jackson, though he estimated him as a 
good man and a very valuable servant to the C. 
S. A., ** but before I will tamely submit I will 
tender my resignation, and it will be necessary to 
forward it through General Jackson as my chief." 
It happened that the writer of this was the bearer 
of the resignation to General Jackson's quarters. 
It occurred in this way: One of the command 
was on the sick list and quartered in a house a 
short distance just beyond General Jackson's quar- 
ters. On reaching General Jackson's quarters, I 
met the late H. Kyd Douglass, a member of his 
staff, delivered the document and said I expected 



210 General Turner Ashby 

to return in about an hour and would call for the 
reply. When I got back Major Douglass in- 
formed me there was no answer. Next day Gen- 
erals Winder and Talliaferro came down to Ash- 
by's quarters, spent the greater part of the day and 
the matter was amicably and satisfactorily ad- 
justed. Jackson, in my opinion, held Ashby in 
high esteem. The night after Ashby was killed 
Jackson said Ashby had never given him a piece 
of information about the enemy that proved to be 
incorrect. I have in my possession an autograph 
letter from Jackson forwarding Ashby's promotion 
to Colonel of Cavalry, C. S. A., which is very 
complimentary, and mentions his (Ashby's) well 
earned promotion. I enclose you a copy of it: 

" Strasburg, March 14, 1862. 
" My dear Colonel : 

** It gives me great pleasure to forward your 
well earned appointment as Colonel of Cavalry. 
" Very truly your friend, 

" T. J. Jackson." 
** Col. Turner Ashby." 

Ashby's discipline has been much discussed. 
He did not believe in machine-made soldiers. At 






The Centaur of the South 21 1 

any rate he and his men were always equal to any 
and all emergencies that arose or came their way. 
As to my opinion of Ashby, my limited vocabu- 
lary would utterly fail to express it. Suffice it, 
that as a citizen and soldier his example is worthy 
the emulation of the youths and adults of any 
community. Ashby suggested the first raid of 
which I have knowledge. It was to select his 
men, leave the Valley and capture General Gary 
encamped at Markham. General Jackson at first 
agreed, but after considering the proposition de- 
clined to allow Ashby to leave his front. This 
was in the spring of 1862. 
With best wishes, I am. 

Very truly, 

Thomas L. Settle. 



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